The Birds

“It’s like a cloud of birds, but a giant cloud.”

Kelly Powers, Resident of La Grange, Kentucky

Photo by Abby Stanglin

Alfred Hitchcock would have loved La Grange, Kentucky (population 8,082). Like a scene from Hitchcock’s movie The Birds, tens of thousands of black birds swarm a wooded neighborhood in La Grange every morning and evening. It’s been going on for three months—no one knows why the birds picked this neighborhood, and no one knows when they’ll leave. The massive flock of birds is spectacular to watch, but the mess they make is a spectacle to watch out for. Residents say the cloud of birds rains poop on them—they use umbrellas for protection and wash their cars every day. Some folks are using air cannons to scare away the birds. It’s not clear they’re helping—the birds haven’t changed their pattern—and they may even be hurting. The last thing neighbors need is to have someone scaring the crap out of these birds.

VIDEO: When starlings move in large swirls, it’s called murmuration. This doesn’t really have anything to do with the black birds in Kentucky, but I found really cool video of starling murmuration caught by two young women on a canoe trip in Ireland. You've got to watch this . . .

Synchronized Starlings

Read more:

■  Katie Bauer, Tens of thousands of birds invade Oldham County neighborhood, WAVE 3, January 24, 2012 [includes video].

■  Jeanne Moos, La Grange, Kentucky is a real life ‘The Birds’ town, KSDK News, January 25, 2012 [includes video].