SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The death of 100 birds in the San Francisco Bay Area has baffled wildlife officials who say the creatures’ feathers were coated with a mysterious substance that looks and feels like rubber cement.
The birds began turning up on a beach Friday. Necropsies and lab tests will be done Tuesday, but results may not be known until later this week, California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Andrew Hughan said.
“We’ve never seen anything quite like it,” Hughan said. “So it’s a mystery for the moment.”
Volunteers were slogging through mud and bog in the foggy, cold weather looking for dead surf scoters, buffleheads and horned grebes. The birds each weigh about 4 pounds and are roughly the size of a duck.
Dead birds have turned up on shorelines, beaches and trails in the suburbs of San Leandro, Alameda and Hayward.