Birds!!!

reply to post by gnosticagnostic


It was incredibly strange, how they instantly just stopped.

The first thing I considered was a predator nearby, but no birds evacuated their perch, which would be strange when considering the sheer number of birds.

The area I live in is not in the back 40 or anything, I live in a moderately populated sub-urban cluster of middle-class homes. We do have the occassional stray wild animal come through - a few years ago, a black bear made it's way into the neighborhood and you may find deer, fox, and/or turkeys at any given time.

I have heard a flock of birds cease their chirping, but I recall their subsequent departure immediately following their outburst of silence. Many times it is easy to spot why... a wild animal, a gunshot, a loud vehicle, a cat, or bicycler in the area. This time, none of these were evident and their vocalization ceased on more than 1 occassion while I observed them.

I think migration could account for many of the sightings, where exploded avian populations are witnessed. I kinda remember it being too late into the year for general migration, but it has been seasonally warmer than years past, although there was a very cold spell several weeks prior.

It was just so strange, I wish I could have created a high-quality recording of the event.

I think I wrote a thread about this several months back, but can't remember right off;

I was messing around outside one day when I saw a crow sitting still near my mini-apple/pear orchard. It wouldn't fly away when my dog approached it. I assumed it was injured, because, in my experience, even ill birds will try to escape the threat of a predator.

I watched the birds for several minutes and noted it's strange behavior. It was in a loop pattern of movement, where it would continually nod up and down, over and over and over. I actually got it on video, but have not uploaded it yet, hopefully it is still in memory.

I just wonder if that situation had any sort of link to this strange occcurrance of bird silence?



*PS (in further reference to your OR);

Birds will go silent when facing a predator, this is well acknowledge and may have been what happened here - I don't believe it is responsible for the OP event, but I can't rule it out either.

I don't know how I can say that the behavior was completely out of the blue and not the same manner of silence found in the threat of a predator. I wish I could explain why I believe that, but I can't. It is just something in my gut that tells me it is different. There is just something different about the silence, and the way it came about, that leaves me feeling this way. Maybe instincts on my part? Whatever it is, it compells me to believe the silence was not ordinary and has no run-of-the-mill explanation to account for it.

I don't know why, I just know it was not predator or standard migratory behavior.

*Sorry for the delayed reply*

reply to post by Siberbat


Sorry, I can't identify the exact variety of birds involved with this, but I can describe the ones I saw the most... they appeared to vary insize quite a bit, from the size of a crow, to a starling. They were mostly all black and appeared to have a very deep, dark blue on their chests, while others had a very deep, dark crimson on their chests.

I am not sure their beak color, but it appeared to be black or a very milky yellow. There were other birds around, but none seemed to account for any sizeable flocking number.

So maybe black birds and crows.... can't be certain, I'll look at some images and see if I can give a better description.

reply to post by rbkruspe


Hey there! Thanks for that, I totally dropped the ball on that one. You mention the quake in Sevierville, just about 8-10 miles from my home. There was also another quake within days, I think it was the recent Kentucky Quake. Prior to that one, another quake was reported in Marvyille - right where I live.

reply to post by esteay812


oh it's all good... I have lived in lots of places, when I lived in southeast alaska, we would watch the eagle flock parties by the fishery docks... I have witnessed plenty of bird behavior. I now live in the suburbs as well and the only things we have around here are dogs and cats.. maybe an odd rabbit or squirrel but nothing menacing lol. What I experienced that day freaked me out and I cannot explain it to people very well. It lasted about an hour total. I first noticed the bird noises about 10 am that morning by 10:05, I was beyond annoyed because it was just so loud. I hadn't even reached the window yet when the first silence occurred. Dead silence which lasted what seemed like a minute or more but it probably wasn't that long. At that time , I closed the window. That's when the birds started again and I swear they were LOUDER if thats possible. Again, I just had a thought of.. that's going to drive me crazy, I need a bb gun or something... Dead Silence. This went on for awhile and I remember distracting myself on the computer.. finally when the walnuts started bombarding the house I went outside because I thought if anything I can scare them off... lol it was a strange experience.. I didn't scare them, they scared me I almost thought I was going to have my own film the birds played out live. LOL