The scene is impressive. In footage from a CCTV camera, a cloud of birds – yellow-headed blackbirds – suddenly swoops to the ground. When it dissipates, dozens of birds lie on the pavement, as if struck down by a mysterious illness. This sequence, filmed on February 7 at Cuauhtemoc (Mexico), sparked many theories in the local press and on social networks, some relaying the hypothesis of toxic products or waves from a 5G antenna.
“It’s clearly a movement of panic”, explains ornithologist Maxime Zucca, interviewed by franceinfo. For this former director of conservation at the League for the Protection of Birds, these yellow-headed blackbird “run away from something”like “a predator” Where “a firework rocket”. This migratory bird from America, halfway between the blackbird and the starling, always moves in a cloud, without a real leader, each bird following its neighbours.
“These flights have chaotic movements. In an emergency situation, there can be bad decision-making.”
Maxime Zucca, ornithologistat franceinfo
“These are the limits of collective intelligence in a situation of dread. Kind of like a flock of sheep rushing off a cliff to escape a predator.”explains Maxime Zucca.
For him, all poisoning is “completely excluded”. “Toxicity would not send a cloud of birds to the ground. We will have dead birds everywhere and not in a single street”, he justifies. As for 5G waves, possible effects would occur “over a long period”. “The waves can cause difficulties in orientation, but not sudden death”continues Maxime Zucca.
An analysis shared by the scientists interviewed by The Guardian. “Based on this video alone and without toxicological analysis, I think the most likely cause is that this flock of birds tried to avoid a raptor and hit the ground”explains Alexandrer Lees, ornithologist at the University of Manchester. “It looks like a raptor, like a peregrine falcon or an eagle, was chasing this swarm, forced them closer to the ground and they crashed”abounds the ecologist Richard Broughton.
Ironically, the interest for these very common birds in America to fly in such large numbers is precisely to protect themselves from raptors. “When there are thousands like this, the raptor cannot target, it is completely lost and the probability of an individual being eaten is low”, explains Maxime Zucca. If it is indeed a predator, this tactic did not bring them luck this time.