Blitzed Birds near Beale

This is from last Saturday's Commercial Appeal--not sure how i missed this! I don't think drunk birds are funny, but I think it is funny that they got drunk next to Beale Street.


Beale deals with latest drinking problems — blitzed birds
Cedar waxwings get drunk on fermented berries, crash into Peabody Place
By Tom Charlier

The mayhem just a block or two off Beale Street turned out to be another case of public drunkenness.

There was lots of odd behavior and thrashing about. Some paid the ultimate price for their intoxication.

But instead of barflies, these were birds -- cedar waxwings, to be exact -- and they got tipsy from eating fermented berries before crashing into buildings in the Peabody Place area.

The Health Department investigated the incident this week after receiving calls about dead and floundering birds. Callers feared an outbreak of bird flu.

Instead, department entomologist Dan Sprenger traced the problem to berries from holly trees along Peabody Place between Second and Third.

Recent freezes ruptured berry cells, allowing wild yeast to convert sugars into alcohol.

"Essentially what happens is, the birds get drunk and they get rather reckless, and they end up flying into buildings," Sprenger said.

He couldn't say how many birds died, but two were still on the ground and a flock of about 50 were in the air when department officials arrived.

Cedar waxwings, songbirds that travel in flocks, are among the "most frugivorous (fruit-eating) birds in North America," according to birds.cornell.edu, a Web site of Cornell University's ornithological laboratory, which also warns they are "vulnerable to alcohol intoxication and death."

Because of their itinerate ways, the birds "gorge themselves on berries," said Martha Waldron, former curator for the Tennessee Ornithological Society.

"In the winter, they're moving from one feeding frenzy to another," she said.

Often flying under the influence, no doubt.