Thousands of birds dropped dead from the sky over the Arkansas town of Beebe.

“I thought it was out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie,” Beebe Mayor Mike Robertson said.

Dead birds littered lawns, roof tops and roads.

“I thought the mayor was messing with me when he called me,” the street department supervisor, Milton McCullar, said. “He got me up at 4 o’clock in the morning, saying we had birds falling out of the sky.”

Most of the stricken birds were red-winged black birds. Arkansas game and fish has collected some of the dead animals and will perform tests on Monday to try and determine the cause.

Officials believed it was weather related, due to lightning or high atmospheric hail.

In the meantime, there are so many dead birds on the streets that it is impossible to drive and not crush them.

Steven Bryant, a Beebe resident, said he will not let his children outside to play until he knows what caused the deaths.

“I wouldn’t let them go outside right now, I don’t really know what the explanation with the birds being out here but I ain’t gonna take no chances,” Bryant said.

He found around 40 dead birds on his lawn.

The mystery is unraveling like scenes from a movie, dozens of U.S. Environmental Services crews spent the day picking up the birds, walking between homes and climbing on roofs with protective hazmat suits and breathing masks,.

Charles Boldrey stands outside watching the crews, “Nobody knows, I asked these guys who are out here picking them up and they don’t seem to know anything. Nobody seems to know anything. It just kind of freaked everybody out.”

Officials with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission flew over the area and determined it’s a one mile stretch. There are a variety of dead black birds, mostly red winged and a duck was also found.

No one has been evacuated because the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) air test came back clean for toxins.

Weatherly is skeptical, “They’re walking around in masks and I’m wondering do we need the same thing because what makes that happen for them to drop out of the sky like that.”

Katherina Yancy with Today’s THV found one bird still living. It was confused, injured, continuously walked in circles and didn’t make a sound or attempt to fly.

Officials will confirm their findings when they get the test results, until then they are giving these possible scenarios: lightning, stress, high altitude hail or startled by fireworks, but neighbors just want answers.

Bryant says, “Something out of a movie and Hazmat people are walking around not telling us anything.”

Boldrey adds, “I’d like to know. Kind of spooky, you never know what’s going to happen.”

The birds should be cleaned up by Sunday. Game and Fish Commission’s Karen Rowe says poisoning doesn’t appear to be the case and strange events similar to this have occurred across the globe a number of times.

The City of Beebe held an emergency city council meeting Saturday morning to approve paying the U.S. Environmental Services to clean the neighborhood.

Sixty-five dead birds have been sent to off for testing.

Arkansas Game and Fish Press Release:

BEEBE, Ark.– Friday night, ringing in the New Year took on a whole different meaning for the citizens of Beebe. Around 11:30 p.m., enforcement officers with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission began getting reports of dead black birds falling from the sky in the city limits of Beebe.

Officers estimated that over 1,000 birds had fallen out of the sky over the city before midnight. Most of the birds were dead, but some were still alive when officers arrived. The blackbirds fell over a one-mile area in the city. AGFC wildlife officer Robby King responded to the reports and found hundreds of birds. “Shortly after I arrived there were still birds falling from the sky,” King said. King collected about 65 dead birds that will be sent to the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission lab and the National Wildlife Health Center lab in Madison, Wis.

The AGFC has flown over the area to gauge the scope of the event. There were no other birds found outside of the initial area.

AGFC ornithologist Karen Rowe said that strange events similar to this one have occurred a number of times across the globe. “Test results usually were inconclusive, but the birds showed physical trauma and that the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail,” Rowe said.

Another scenario may have been that New Year’s Eve revelers shooting off fireworks in the area may have startled the birds from their roost. The birds may have died from stress.

Rowe said that it didn’t appear as though the birds died of any poisoning or other event. “Since it only involved a flock of blackbirds and only involved them falling out of the sky it is unlikely they were poisoned, but a necropsy is the only way to determine if the birds died from trauma or toxin,” she said. Testing will begin on Monday.

The City of Beebe has hired U.S. Environmental Services to begin the cleanup and dispose of the dead birds. The environmental firm will go door-to-door to pick up the birds that are still in yards and on roof tops.

(Source: WAVC3)