February 19, 2013 - UNITED STATES - Millions of birds have descended on a small Kentucky city this winter,
fouling the landscape, scaring pets and raising the risk for disease in a
real-life version of Alfred Hitchcock's horror film,
The Birds.
The blackbirds and European starlings blacken the sky of Hopkinsville,
Kentucky, before roosting at dusk, turn the landscape white with bird
poop, and the disease they carry can kill a dog and sicken humans.
"I have seen them come in, and there are enough that if the sun is just
right, they'll cloud your vision of the sun," said
Hopkinsville-Christian County historian William Turner. "I estimate
there are millions of them."
David Chiles, president of the Little River Audubon Society, said the
fact that migratory flocks are roosting in the city rather than flying
further south is tied to climate warming.
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| Blackbirds descend on the town of Hopkinsville, Kentucky - Source: Reuters. |
"The weather, the climate plays a big role," said Chiles, the bird
enthusiast who also teaches biology at Hopkinsville High School.
"They somehow establish a roost south of where the ground is frozen
solid," he explained. "They are ground feeders, feeding on leftover
crops and insects. If the fields are frozen solid, they can't feed."
Although the birds have not turned on humans as in
the classic 1963 Hitchcock movie featuring vicious attacks on people in a
small northern California town, the city has taken defensive measures.
The south-central Kentucky city of 35,000 people, about an hour north of
Nashville, has hired a pest control company to get rid of the
interlopers.
Henry Jako, general manager of McGee Pest Control, said crews use air
cannons and "bird-bangers" - similar to bottle rocket fireworks aimed
into the trees where the birds roost.
The artillery attacks are disturbing some locals as well as the birds.
"It scares my little dog to death," said Christian County
Judge-Executive Steve Tribble. "I don't know what it does other than
move the birds from one tree to the next."
Jako said that in the worst-affected neighborhoods, multiple cannons and
consecutive blasts are being used to keep the birds moving.
When they fly away, the birds leave behind a huge volume of excrement.
"I've got an apple tree that has almost turned white," Tribble said.
"Any vehicle parked outside is covered up. I guess it's good for folks
that have car washes."
Historian Turner said that the blackbird invasion this year is the worst
he's witnessed since the late 1970s, when Hopkinsville suffered a
similar bird blitz.
"We aren't seeing the temperatures go as low as zero like we used to.
Now we very often don't even see temperatures in the teens around here,"
Jako said. "If the birds are comfortable, they are going to stay
around," he added.
The birds also pose a serious health hazard because their droppings can
carry a fungal disease called histoplasmosis, which can cause lung
infections and symptoms similar to pneumonia, according to the Centers
for Disease Control website.
"It does become a matter of public health," said Dr. Wade Northington,
director of the Murray State University Breathitt Veterinary Center, an
animal disease diagnostic facility whose territory covers a 322
kilometre radius from Hopkinsville, including parts of Tennessee,
Illinois and Indiana.
"The blackbirds are able to harbor this organism ... so it can be shed
in their droppings and it becomes a problem, especially where they tend
to roost in extremely high numbers," he said.
It can cause illness in humans, and is particularly dangerous for people
with compromised immune systems or respiratory ailments, he said. It
can be fatal for canines.
Turner, who suffered histoplasmosis decades ago after excavating family
property that once held a chicken coop, describes the disease as
debilitating. "I didn't have any energy, and I didn't have much appetite
and lost weight," he said.
The droppings contaminate the soil, making it unhealthy for years. It is a worry for dog owners, said Northington.
"It can be very expensive and take months to get it arrested and get an
animal cured from it," Northington said. "The disease is very prevalent
in our area." -
TVNZ.
WATCH: Eye-witness captures swarm of blackbirds over Kentucky.
On a perfectly sunny day, a dark black cloud descended over Hopkinsville, Kentucky, but it's not what you might think: it's a swarm of thousands of blackbirds roosting in trees there.
The Audubon Society says this year's mild winter is keeping the birds from flying further south. As a result, some trees and sidewalks in the neighborhood are covered in bird droppings.
The Audubon Society says those droppings can also carry a fungus known as histoplasmosis - something that can make people with weak immune systems sick, and it can even kill some dogs if it's bad enough.
The city has hired a pest control company to use air cannons that make a loud noise to scare away those birds from roosting in Hopkinsville trees.
They're loud when they come in at night, they're loud when they leave in the morning and the droppings all over the houses and sidewalks are really inconvenient," said David Chiles with the Audubon Society.
The Audubon Society says the birds shouldn't hang around Hopkinsville for too much longer.
They expect the birds to fly further north in about three to four weeks. -
News Channel 5.
WATCH: Blackbird Invasion Descends Upon Hopkinsville.
