FORTEAN PHENOMENA

Dead birds pop up in Oklahoma City: Like 'a Hitchcock movie'

July 9, 2023

Photos: Screen captures

"Like a scene out of a Hitchcock movie," said one Oklahoma woman while standing outside of a Starbucks. She sent Raw Story a video of the grass and parking lot.

At a number of spots around the Oklahoma City and Mustang, Oklahoma area, dead birds are covering the ground.

According to the woman that contacted Raw Story, an employee at Starbucks said that someone was coming to "take care of it," because customers were unnerved by the scene.

"The meteorologist that I trust with my life says that the #OklahomaCity storm's more severe weather tracked over all these dead birds," tweeted Casey Pregent. "Walmart/ olive garden/ Starbucks at sw 3rd and MacArthur: avoid the area."

Her comment was part of a conversation with KOCO's meteorologist Michael Armstrong, who explained that the birds could have been killed due to the early morning storm that rolled through the city. Winds were clocked at about 80 mph, and some areas of the city saw hail, including the areas with the dead birds.

"It’s definitely consistent with the track of the worst hail and wind," said Armstrong. "It’s not unprecedented for cattle to be killed by hail, and now imagine birds riding out wind-driven hail sitting in a tree. It’s just an unfortunate side of these powerful storms."

The reasoning is unusual because Oklahoma is known for its storms, tornadoes, and large hail. Only a month ago, parts of Oklahoma City and Edmond experienced DVD-sized hail. But there were no widespread bird carcasses littering the ground at the time. The same can be said for Chickasha in April, where baseball-sized chunks of ice fell from the sky. There were no widespread bird deaths in that case either.

Unlike cattle, birds have a lot of freedom of movement and places where they can hide outside and under things that are more solid than trees. Cows have a fairly restricted environment, given they're often fenced in.

Meanwhile, those in Northeast Scotland and parts of the UK have seen lots of dead birds. They're fearful it might be an Avian Flu outbreak.

The Suffolk, New York County Health Department announced that they are collecting some dead birds under suspicion that they could have succumbed to the West Nile virus. They explained birds like crows, blue jays, robins and birds of prey are the most susceptible to the infection.

Another alternative could be a chemical spray, either a pesticide or something similar.

See the videos captured of the birds below or at the link here.