Mystery solved in case of dead birds in Delta

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – More than a week after dozens of starlings were found dead near the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal, wildlife experst have found out why they were killed: trauma.

Rob Hope with Delta’s Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society says one of their volunteers picked up the birds so they could send them to the Canada’s Wildlife Service for testing.

“Basically it was trauma that killed the birds,” he said.

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Hope says there was a balling of starlings and as the ball was pulling up, a couple of hundred hit the ground. The rest of the flock went back into the air.

Some of the birds weren’t killed, and were able to escape and fly back up into the air, but 42 were found dead.

At the time they formed the ball in the sky, the group as being hunted by a predatory bird.

“I would imagine this happens quite often, especially in that scenario,” he said. “Our concern, of course, originally was there could have possibly been something wrong with the animals, which is why it’s important to get them tested in case there’s something out there we have to worry about.”

He said the birds forming a ball is a common defense mechanism.

Hope adds, “the balling defense mechanism of the starlings, from a predator, is quite common. I think this time they just happened to hit concrete and not grass.”

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