Flock of 150 starlings drops from the sky in Galician city.
This incredible incident saw the birds drop on top of vehicles in the street, and even onto the pedestrians who were passing by in the vicinity of the Ribera Juan Cardano Hospital. Residents quickly alerted the Ferrol Local Police force, who deployed a patrol to the Galician location.
They were accompanied by an environmental technician from the Xunta, and technicians from the company that performs the bird control service for the Ferrol Department of the Environment. Together, they proceeded to remove this dead flock of specimens of the common starling - Sturnus vulgaris.
Among the fallen birds, five were recovered still alive, but unable to fly. They were transferred in carriers to the Xunta's Wild Fauna Recovery Centre, located in Oleiros, A Coruña. Meanwhile, both the Ferrol City Council and the Xunta have been in collaboration to try to find out the causes of the death of these birds.
As pointed out by the local administration, the Ferrol bird control company had located last Thursday, 25, a small flock of about 30 starlings in the University area, although, the area where these dead and injured specimens appeared "is not a previously cataloged roost and no notice of the presence of starlings had been received before".
One hypothesis is that if a bird touches a high voltage cable with a wing, the electric arc phenomenon can occur, and this discharge is quickly transmitted to the rest of the flock, with fatal consequences, as reported 20minutos.es.
