Unknown Country has previously reported unexplained mass extinction-style events occurring in fish and other marine life (see Rivers of Death and Silent Seas), but the phenomenon also appears to be spreading to our bird life.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that, for the third consecutive year, more blackbirds fell from the sky on New Year’s Eve in Beebe, Arkansas.
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Once again, birds are mysteriously dropping out of the sky dead, and, as always, the media treats it as if this continuing mystery is happening for the first time. This time, the mystery is unfolding in Winnepeg, Manitoba in Canada. Roughly 40 dread grackles were collected last Wednesday and given to the province’s chief veterinarian. 20 more were found on the roof of a building, most dead and others in death throes. An initial examination of the birds’ stomach contents did not reveal anything abnormal, and further toxicology tests are being undertaken at this time.
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Every year millions of birds make heroic journeys guided by the earth’s magnetic field. How they detect magnetic fields has puzzled scientists for decades. Now biologists have figured out how they do it–they’ve found tiny magnets inside their ears.
These magnetic cells, called hair cells, are responsible for detecting sound and gravity.
What are birds saying? The world is full of them–of one kind or another (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show).
Charles Darwin speculated that "The sounds uttered by birds offer in several respects the nearest analogy to language." Language, he thought, might have had its origins in singing, which "might have given rise to words expressive of various complex emotions."read more
At last: Something GOOD about smoking! Birds in Mexico City are lining their nests with cigarette butts they pick up off the street, and scientists have discovered that they repel pests and keep the baby birds warm.
They’re filling their nests with up to 48 cigarette butts in order to make use of the repellent properties of tobacco. The nicotine and other chemicals in the cigarettes as a natural pesticide that repels parasitic mites (but what do they do to smokers?)
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