There’s a popular standard, about 85 years old, titled “Bye Bye Blackbird.” But those words have a modern, sad significance because of the mysterious deaths of more than 4,000 red-winged blackbirds in Arkansas shortly before midnight on New Year’s Eve.
The birds are beautiful, their black sheen being highlighted by red wings, each decorated with a strip of brilliant yellow. Red-winged blackbirds are numerous throughout the South, particularly in rural farmland areas.
But something disastrous happened to many of them a few days ago.
Thousands of blackbirds literally dropped from the sky, dead, in a 1.5-square-mile area of Arkansas.
What was the cause? It could have been related to celebratory fireworks. Or, some suggest, the birds were struck by a violent thunderstorm that disoriented them and fatally thrust them to the ground. Or was there a sudden fatal chill as they roosted? Others say there may have been some strange disease that caused the avian deaths.