Hundreds of birds fall from sky in Australia

SYDNEY
Residents of Esperance in Western Australia found their suburban properties littered with the bodies of honeyeaters, wattle birds and yellow-throated miners

Australian authorities are investigating the mysterious deaths of hundreds of birds that dropped from the sky over a small coastal town in a period of a few weeks. Residents of Esperance in Western Australia found their suburban properties littered with the bodies of honeyeaters, wattle birds and yellow-throated miners, local media reported this week.

Michelle Crisp told the Australian newspaper she and her neighbour had counted 80 dead birds in one day. "It was like a moonscape, just horrible," she said. "The loss of birds has been so noticeable people are saying 'We've just got no birds in the garden at all', or 'We're getting no dawn chorus'," conservationist Graeme Hamilton told AFP today. Hamilton, chief executive of the country's main bird conservation group, Birds Australia, said he had never heard of bird deaths on the scale seen in Esperance.