Swallows fall dead from the sky - that's behind the phenomenon
Created: 06/10/2022, 20:52
By: Victoria Krumbeck
A barn swallow on a rope.
© Stefan Sauer/dpa
Birds caught in a traffic jam can currently be observed in the Alps.
They are exhausted and sometimes cannot fly any further, some die.
Munich – When summer ends, many migratory birds fly to the warm south.
They hibernate there because there is more to eat there.
The road to get there is long and consumes a lot of energy.
However, bird experts have observed two phenomena.
The birds got caught in a train jam and some of them fall dead from the sky.
There is speculation about the reason, but the weather seems to play a very important role.
Birds fall dead from the sky - that's behind the phenomenon
At the beginning of October, experts observed migratory birds such as barn swallows and other small birds on their journey south.
In Switzerland, some of the birds have taken a break, as reported by the
BirdLife
organization .
According to the observations, the birds landed wet and disheveled in Switzerland.
The journey puts a strain on the birds because the weather throws a spanner in the works.
Although the weather has been drier in recent days, September has been very rainy.
When it rains too heavily and the wind is too strong, the birds often cannot fly any further.
In addition, insects are missing in such weather, so that the birds can strengthen themselves.
According to the organization, 4.6 million birds have been counted across Europe.
60,000 birds took flight over Switzerland.
Bird deaths in the Alps: lack of food and bad weather
Experts observing the train jam found that many animals had died due to the lack of food, as reported
by petbook.de
.
The weather not only creates severe flight conditions, but also causes the absence of the insects.
These hide in the rainy and cold weather and the birds get nothing.
Many animals cannot continue their journey and have to spend the winter in the cold regions.
"Especially species like swallows are dependent on flying insects to cover their energy needs.
If this does not happen, for example because a stubborn bad weather system hardly allows insects to fly, the birds have nothing to nibble on," explained bird consultant Martin Rümmler from the German Nature Conservation Union (Nabu) to the petbook.de portal.
If the animals do not find any food on their journey, they die and, in extreme cases, can fall dead from the sky.
The phenomenon of falling birds happened not only in European countries.
Exhausted migratory birds have also fallen from the sky in the USA.
The presumed reason here is the adoring wildfires in the United States.
Earlier this year, hundreds of birds died in Mexico - they could all have been poisoned.
(vk)
