That is the view a handful of folks awoke to in Chihuahua, Mexico, on February 7.
Thousands and thousands around the globe were given a front-row seat of the bloodbath when safety digital camera pictures was once launched of the development, but it surely left folks with extra questions than solutions.
“The reason for this atypical and troubling incident is in truth anyone’s bet at this level,” mentioned Carlos Botero, assistant professor of biology at Washington College in St. Louis.
The pictures did not display all the swarm of birds, however Botero hypothesized that they may have flown via a cloud of deadly chemical compounds. Autopsies of the lifeless chook specimens would wish to be finished to resolve if that was once the case, he mentioned.
A predator will have additionally despatched the birds frantically flying away, Botero added.
Richard Broughton, an ornithologist at the United Kingdom Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, was once virtually sure the maneuver was once to keep away from a predator like a peregrine falcon.
“Blackbirds shape tight flocks, referred to as a ‘murmuration,’ that swirls within the sky to take a look at and confuse the falcon so it can’t select a goal,” Broughton mentioned by way of e mail.
To battle this technique, the falcon dives immediately into the flock of birds to split out a goal, Broughton defined. When this occurs, the blackbirds attempt to keep away from it.
Within the video, audience are most probably seeing the birds try to break out a predator that attacked them from above, he mentioned. The birds headed down, however some may now not pull up rapid sufficient, Broughton added.
How commonplace is that this habits?
It is very uncommon for birds to crash into the bottom, and it is not customary habits, Botero mentioned.
There are different occurrences of birds loss of life from abrupt crashing, Farnsworth mentioned.
