[HN Gopher] Hundreds of birds suddenly drop from the sky [video]
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Hundreds of birds suddenly drop from the sky [video]
Author : andrewfromx
Score : 38 points
Date : 2022-02-15 20:21 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.wesh.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.wesh.com)
| CyanBird wrote:
| It was an electric shortcut
|
| The birds where standing on an electric cable, you can see the
| posts in the video, the flock because it was tightly packaged
| while standing on the cables it made them touch and that
| electrocuted a lot of birds it seems
| ghostly_s wrote:
| I don't think so. The bulk of them flew right away afterwards.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| That's the explanation I read when this was released the other
| day. The birds closer to the wire bore the brunt of the shock
| as it arc'd out to birds not even touching the wire. You can
| see where the bulk of the dead birds fall in line with the
| wire, and get more sparse as they're distributed outward. Then,
| a few of them are merely stunned, and get up to fly away.
| Synaesthesia wrote:
| Cinema4D?
| paulgb wrote:
| This looks like a Boids implementation that gets the flocking
| behavior right but has a bug in ground collision avoidance.
| salynchnew wrote:
| Assume this is evasive behavior due to a predator or predator-
| analogue (i.e., a drone might also be mistaken for a predator and
| cause this behavior).
| sandgiant wrote:
| Video available for Europeans here:
| https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/14/why-did-...
| drzoltar wrote:
| Maybe a microburst [0] of air from a developing thunderstorm?
| Basically, an extremely powerful downward burst of cold air.
| Seems to have killed birds in the past [1]. This is absolutely
| terrifying during takeoff/landing inside an airplane [2].
|
| [0]: https://www.weather.gov/ama/microbursts
|
| [1]: https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/mystery-solved-
| unusua...
|
| [2]: https://youtu.be/Q3Sr2F_xxLo
| h2odragon wrote:
| The middle of the flock is a bad place to be, when the flock
| slams into the ground at full speed.
|
| "dammit, Bob, you had the map!"
| peanut_worm wrote:
| I am not sure if those are starlings, but starlings form giant
| flocks called murmurations. The flocks don't have a leader and
| every bird just follows the birds around it, and as a result
| sometimes they crash into things. I wonder if that is happening
| here.
| mrtksn wrote:
| for those having issues with geofencing on the current event,
| here is the video on YouTube(the high quality version):
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJqdmkjSD2A
|
| There was also an instance of birds crashing into a skyscraper in
| Texas: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4478166/Flock-
| nearl...
|
| ~400 dead.
|
| ps: Obviously, it contains footage that can be disturbing to
| some.
| tcfhgj wrote:
| "Sorry, this content is not available in your region."
|
| Germany btw
| fourseventy wrote:
| Anyone see the show 'Dark'? Birds drop from the sky every time
| someone travels back in time... could be that.
| ssully wrote:
| I think there are a few other theories we should investigate
| first, but I'll add time travel to the list.
| SN76477 wrote:
| iirc birds are really sensitive to some types of gases.
|
| Is it possible that a flock of birds flew into a pocket of such
| gas? Maybe methane escaping the earth?
| terran57 wrote:
| I could see the predator chasing them to the ground theory being
| the truth here.
| Slow_Hand wrote:
| That'd be a hell of a hunting technique if the predators keyed
| into it: Driving the entire flock to crash into an object,
| allowing them to prey on the dead and injured.
| johnnythunder wrote:
| This exact same thing happened in my front yard, except it
| was on a much smaller scale. The cause - falcon chasing the
| flock of birds into the house. It actually chased them
| several times until it finally forced several to hit the
| side. The falcon then proceeded to fly away with the dead and
| injured one at a time.
| spenczar5 wrote:
| See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_jump
| rcarmo wrote:
| Geofenced, can't watch it from Europe.
| supovic1 wrote:
| The same problem here. Turn on VPN, works fine, i.e. from
| Japan.
| _ph_ wrote:
| Here is a youtube link which works from Europe:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D2lrFemFig
| ww520 wrote:
| For a moment, I thought the birds are geofenced at height and
| thus fell down, like Icarus flying too close to the sun.
| [deleted]
| scifi wrote:
| It does not appear to me that the birds dropped from the sky. It
| seems like, for whatever reason, they flew under their own power
| directly into the ground and surrounding scenery.
| gowld wrote:
| Yeah, it's just a flock of birds flying down.
| berkut wrote:
| A reddit comment I saw last week mentioned it could be just the
| flock/murmuration were trying to get away from a predator and
| flew lower, and the ones at the bottom didn't have much luck
| and hit the ground. Would at least make sense...
| w-ll wrote:
| I read that they went between some powerlines and the flock
| of them caused a short between the lines that spread and
| arc'd through them.
| ortusdux wrote:
| From the link:
|
| Ornithologist and biology professor at Allegheny College in
| Pennsylvania, Ronald L. Mumme told Newsweek he thought a
| large bird was behind it.
|
| "Based on the birds' behavior, my suspicion is that a falcon
| or other bird-eating raptor attacked the flock in flight, and
| during evasive maneuvers the flock members dove, became
| disoriented, and many crashed to the ground and injured
| themselves," he said. "I don't think any birds were having
| problems until they collided with the ground or buildings. It
| looks like most of the birds were able to fly away, but a
| significant number could not."
|
| Two more experts told The Guardian they agreed with Mumme,
| blaming the event on "flock murmurating to avoid a predator
| raptor."
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(page generated 2022-02-15 23:02 UTC)