In a terrifying incident witnesses described as a scene “like something out of a horror film,” about 60 birds died in Australia earlier in July 2019 after falling from the sky shrieking and bleeding from their eyes and beaks.
The birds, that belong to a protected native species—the long-billed corella—are believed to have been poisoned, leading to their mysterious mass death near a school at One Tree Hill in Adelaide, in the country’s south.
Many of the birds were already dead when rescuers were called onto the scene to tend to the cockatoos. While some of the corella were alive, those too were bleeding from their beaks and eyes.
Sarah King, the founder of Casper’s Bird Rescue, told the Guardian that one of her staff discovered the poor creatures before calling her in a state of distress to say to her that there were far more of the suffering birds than he could handle.
King believes that the way in which the long-billed corella died was consistent with poisoning, leading to a grueling death that may have inflicted pain on the birds for days to weeks, in some cases.
Veterinarian Trudy Seidel, who also inspected the birds, said that poisoning was “more than likely,” according to the Australian Broadcast Corporation.
Another species of the bird, the little corella, is considered a pest in the region because of the damage it can inflict on crops and street lights, and local authorities list the bird as unprotected.
In 2018, the little corella menaced northern Adelaide by the thousands, stripping trees, causing a ruckus and leaving the area coated in droppings.
In March 2019, a local council proposed culling the creatures by gassing, while others have suggested novel methods of herding them away such as deploying drones or falcons to scare them off.
According to The Mind Unleashed, the deceased long-billed corellas are undergoing disease and toxin testing, which will last several weeks before the cause for poisoning is found.
Those found guilty of harming the protected species might face fines or even jail time for the crime.
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