Hundreds of Birds Slam Into NASCAR Hall of Fame building, Killing Themselves

This is again another disturbing phenomenon you don’t want to see everyday.

Holl Bell filmed hundreds of birds slamming into the NASCAR Hall of Fame building and killing themselves in Uptown Charlotte. Terrifying! But are there any 5G towers around?

The birds had been slamming into the building for about an hour. In total there are 310 birds that just slammed into the windows of the building.

Voir cette publication sur Instagram

Three hundred birds hit a building uptown. We got the call about 11pm and our rehab team sprung into action to help. We will be here for hours evaluating and triaging all these birds. Chimney swifts are aerial insectivores and require hand feeding lots of worms. It’s an expensive endeavor but these birds are an incredible contributor to our eco system and eat hundreds of mosquitos a day. Cwr.networkforgood.com Cwrescue.org/donate Patreon.com/waterfowlrescue Venmo cwrescue Paypal.me/waterfowlrescue

Une publication partagée par Carolina Waterfowl Rescue (@waterfowlrescue) le 15 Oct. 2019 à 10 :11 PDT

About a third of those birds died, another third were just stunned and will recover, while the last third are being treated for serious injuries.

“Oh my God, look at them all,” she says in the video as what appears to be bird carcasses littered around the entrance to the Hall of Fame building.

Voir cette publication sur Instagram

Someone asked me today, why would I bother saving these birds. Why? Losing one swift is a tragedy, losing hundreds is horrible. Our aerial insectivores populations are declining. A bird that eats 12,000 mosquitos a day? That’s reason enough for me. Here is some info on swifts. Chimney Swifts are not your ordinary bird! These insectivores live most of their lives “on the wing”, covering up to 500 miles a day – they even eat and drink while in flight. Chimney Swifts eat up to 12,000 mosquitoes, termites, flies, and other insects each day; as they skim over ponds and creeks, they scoop up water in their mouths. Due to their foot structure, Chimney Swifts are incapable of perching, even on tree limbs. Specialized toes, tail feathers, and long sharp nails allow them to cling to vertical surfaces. Unfortunately, these birds’ numbers are declining significantly due to loss of nesting sites. Chimney Swifts roost and nest inside brick or masonry chimneys, or occasionally in barn silos or old city smokestacks and hollow trees. These neighbors can be a little noisy at times, so conflicts most often arise when they roost in a homeowner’s chimney.

Une publication partagée par Carolina Waterfowl Rescue (@waterfowlrescue) le 16 Oct. 2019 à 9 :31 PDT

“There’s something wrong with them,” Belle says. “This is not ok. Yeah, I feel like this is like the end of the world right now. Yeah, like this is where it starts. This is where it starts.”

Over the last 50 years, the U.S. and Canada have slowly but surely lost 29% of their bird populations — amounting to nearly 3 billion birds.

While not all of the factors for the mass decline have been pinpointed, researchers say habitat loss is a major concern.

Voir cette publication sur Instagram

Whats so special about chimney swifts? We already talked about the large numbers of mosquitoes they eat everyday. They are part of a group of birds called Ariel insectivores that is on the decline. These birds eat on the wing, they dont perch, just hang. They are unable to pick up food off of the ground they have to catch their food in the air. This is why it presents a unique challenge for our rehabilitation staff. As each bird has to be hand fed every 2 hours. It’s a very time consuming process and thankfully we have a couple of organizations stepping in to help. @carowildlife Carolina Wildlife Center in Columbia has taken 15 birds. North Carolina Zoo wildlife rehab is taking birds tomorrow as well.

Une publication partagée par Carolina Waterfowl Rescue (@waterfowlrescue) le 16 Oct. 2019 à 6 :24 PDT

It is still unknown what triggered this mass die-off of chimney swifts. But one thing is sure, something really big disturbed the colony last night causing the birds flying in the glass windows and killing themselves. [Instagram, FoxCharlotte]

Follow us: Facebook and Twitter. By the way you can also support us on Paypal. Please and thank you!