Skip to navigation | Skip to content

Boozy birds pay the price for flying high

Red rowan berries

The researchers found that berries on the ground were damaged, which would have made them vulnerable to yeast infestation (Source: Scott Liddell/stock.xchng)

A bizarre spate of young blackbird deaths in England was likely caused by the feathered teens getting drunk on fermented berries, crashing mid-air and falling from the sky, say vets.

Police and animal experts were called in after more than a dozen birds were found dead at a primary school in Cumbria last August - many of them sporting serious injuries.

One of the juvenile blackbirds was found alive but appeared "drunk", pressing its wings into the ground to steady itself and trying to stay upright by leaning against the walls of the enclosure it was taken to.


Instead, the examiners found berries in the birds' stomachs that had a smell of fermentation, according to a report in the journal Veterinary Record.

Further toxicological test found high levels of pure alcohol or ethanol in the liver of one of the birds.

"Some of the birds had died from traumatic injury, possibly related to in-flight collisions secondary to intoxication," write investigators from the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency.


The researchers found that berries on the ground - close to where the birds died - were damaged, which would have made them vulnerable to yeast infestation. This would have precipitated fermentation and subsequent alcohol production, they explain.

The authors say that they can't prove that the birds died after consuming too much alcohol, but they refer to a similar diagnosis made in 1999 of redwings who had been feeding on holly berries.

At the time, lboratory analysis did not reveal any hazardous chemicals, but holly berries were found in their crops and gizzards, samples of which contained high levels of alcohol.


Tags: animals, weird-and-wonderful, birds