Flock of 1,000 birds mysteriously found dead near Missouri town. What killed them?

More than 1,000 birds were found dead near a Missouri town on Monday and officials want to know what happened.

The Missouri Department of Conservation received reports of large numbers of dead birds found near Sikeston and went to investigate, the city shared in a Facebook post written by conservation agent Andrew Mothershead.

Sikeston is located in southeast Missouri roughly 34 miles south of Cape Girardeau.

Mothershead and biologist Kevin Brunke found more than 1,000 dead birds — red-winged blackbirds, brown-headed cowbirds, grackles and European starlings — in fields and neighborhoods near Wakefield Road, the post said.

They also found several injured birds in vegetation near the roadway.

Video of the scene can be found here but may be disturbing to some viewers.

Mothershead wrote that the conservation department had received calls about dead and injured birds between 8 and 9 p.m. on Sunday — about the time a thunderstorm rolled into the area, according to the post.

One resident reported “hearing birds [hit] the ground” near her home, the post said.

Mothershead and Brunke think it’s likely the flock got caught up in the storm.

“... it’s reasonable to conclude that the flock spooked during the weather event, and were caught up in high winds or lightning,” Mothershead wrote. “As birds couldn’t recover in flight, many fell to the ground and perished or became injured.”

He added that while it’s rare for birds to get caught up in unstable weather conditions, it can happen.

Birds were collected and sent to the conservation department’s Wildlife Health Unit in Columbia for further analysis, according to the post.

People with dead birds in their yards were encouraged to collect them with gloves and put them in a bag in the trash for local pick up.

This story was originally published March 3, 2020 at 9:36 AM with the headline "Flock of 1,000 birds mysteriously found dead near Missouri town. What killed them?."