grackles

• “According to wildlife biologist Bill Gates, the birds are grackles, a common black bird, one of the same species reported in the past weeks to have been found dead in mass quantities in other nearby states like Arkansas, Louisiana and Kentucky.”

  The Huffington Post: Hundreds Of Dead Birds Found In Alabama

• “A few grackles and a couple of starlings were also among the dead.”

  USA Today: Noises, fireworks apparently caused Ark. birds to fly into buildings and die

• “Kit yelled, startling a flock of oil-colored grackles from the sunflower fields.”

  Simon & Schuster: Slice Of Cherry

• “Scenes of the day — houses along the road, dog in the yard, grackles on telephone wire, huddled there for the winter wars, the steady whirr of a car, two children walking to the river — play out their pitiful narratives: stories that are really no story at all.”

  Fictionaut: Short, Short, after a Morning with Raymond Carver

• “He got caught in a downpour of ducats, having invented a slot machine that goes off like seagulls and grackles at war.”

  Fictionaut: Las Vegas

• “The grackles, red wing blackbirds, robins and starlings were found last week.”

  The Huffington Post: Hundreds More Dead Birds Fall From Sky In Kentucky

• “In 1999, several thousand grackles fell from the sky and staggered about before dying in north Louisiana.”

  USA Today: Louisiana has mass bird deaths just days after Arkansas

• “The birds — a mixed flock of red-winged blackbirds, brown-headed cowbirds, grackles and starlings — may have hit a power line or vehicles in the dark, LaCour said.”

  USA Today: Louisiana has mass bird deaths just days after Arkansas

• “On the sides of the hills are owls and burrowing owls (Strix) which live in hollows they make in the ground: clouds of robins (Turdus) and green and violet grackles; sparrows (Fringilla) with thick blue beaks; pheasants (Fatianus) etc.”

  Did you know? The first scientific account of Lake Chapala comes from 1839

• “Jim LaCour said that the grackles, starlings, brown-headed cowbirds and red-winged blackbirds had broken beaks and backs.”

  The Guardian: Apocalypse now? Mystery bird deaths hit Louisiana

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