By Tim Binnall
Authorities in Wales appear to have solved the mystery of a bizarre incident last month in which hundreds of starlings suddenly seemed to drop dead in the middle of a road. The strange case occurred back on December 10th near the village of Bodedern on the Welsh island of Anglesey and sparked headlines around the world. At the time, various theories were floated for what could have caused the apocalyptic-looking event, including the possibility that the birds were somehow poisoned.
Thankfully, it turns out that there was a less nefarious and far more prosaic explanation for why the starlings perished. In a series of tweets providing the public with an update on the case, Rob Taylor of the North Wales rural crime department explained that 35 of the approximately 200 dead birds found on the pavement were collected for examination. All of the remains, he wrote, showed "severe internal trauma from impact."
With that in mind, authorities believe that the starlings flew into the pavement and died upon impact, likely while attempting an evasive maneuver to escape a bird of prey. If this sounds familiar, that could be because this is the same situation that unfolded in Canada back in September of 2018. While Taylor cautioned that "the full toxicology has not been received so a final theory cannot be confirmed," he wrote that the department is "quite sure" that the proposed hypothesis is what happened.