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From: Ray Depew <ray_depew@hp.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Robins drink themselves to death
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 16:58:54 -0700

The FAQ sez:
"Tb. Some birds get drunk by eating partly fermented berries/fruits." Well, here's an article that changes that from a "Tb" to an =D6.. um =D6.. well, it certainly solidifies the "Tb".

On Tuesday, January 12, the AP carried an article that read:

"Dozens of robins that dropped to their deaths onto sidewalks and lawns probably died from alcohol after eating fermented berries, a bird expert said."

On Sunday morning, more than 100 dead robins were found under large maple trees in an older part of Santa Rosa, California. Seven dead cedar waxwings were also found, and three more not-dead-yet robins. At first the neighbors feared pesticide poisoning, but the bird expert noticed suspicious purple stains on the birds' beaks and deduced that the birds had gotten drunk.

She found evidence that on Saturday night, the birds had eaten berries from nearby privet (bushes? Trees?). Normally, robins eat privet berries with no ill effects, but the cold weather of the past few weeks allowed the berries to stay on the trees longer (and ferment, I guess).

The bird expert wasn't sure whether it was the alcohol that killed the birds, or the fall to the ground, or exposure from lying on the cold ground all night long. She also said that the alcohol theory was "only a best guess," and that the Dept of Fish and Game planned to examine the birds and test for alcohol toxicity. The worry is that what happened to the robins may happen to other birds that winter in Santa Rosa. (They're gonna AUTOPSY them?)

So it's not for sure, "only a best guess." Darn it, and I was that close to changing a "Tb" to a "T".

Regards
Ray Depew

From: Ray Depew <ray_depew@hp.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Robins drink themselves to death
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 17:00:08 -0700
Organization: HP ICBD EPL

I wrote:

> The FAQ sez:
> "Tb. Some birds get drunk by eating partly fermented berries/fruits."
> Well, here's an article that changes that from a "Tb" to an =D6.. um =D6=
2E.
> well, it certainly solidifies the "Tb".
[AP article about "100 robins drink selves to death" deleted]

I was intrigued enough by the article to call the "bird expert" and get the rest of the story. I figured that the AP wouldn't follow up on it, since TRotS isn't often as newsworthy as the original news.

Martha Bentley is a friendly, personable lady who knows and loves birds. She was good enough to spend quite a while with me on the phone, and she gave me a wealth of information. It's fun to talk with someone who has a love for their work and is willing to take the time to explain it well.

Ms. Bentley and her colleagues at the Bird Rescue Center have spent almost an entire week trying to solve this case. The final count on this tragedy was 125 robins and 7 cedar waxwings dead. All the birds were fat and glossy and in excellent shape, aside from being dead. Five other robins were still twitching when they were found, and after 24 hours in an incubator they were anxious to fly again.

Ms. Bentley said that they, the Bird Rescue Center, have all but dropped the alcohol hypothesis in favor of a new hypothesis. (She emphasized that it's only a hypothesis, and they will have to wait for the results of Fish and Game's analysis of the dead birds. They really are going to perform autopsies on some of the robins, and that could take weeks or even months. I repeat the emphasis on HYPOTHESIS here in case our esteemed colleagues at the Wall Street Journal - hi, guys! - read this and want to repeat some of it.)

Their latest thinking is that it wasn't alcohol toxicity, but privet toxicity. Privet ("lingustrum" in Latin, remember the name) is not native to North America. Most of the varieties in California came from eastern Asia, while two varieties come from Europe. The book "Poisonous Plants of California" (Thomas C. Fuller and Elizabeth McClintock, 1986: University of California Press) says that the leaves and berries of the plants are poisonous. The poison, however, isn't in the flesh of the berries but in the seeds, and according to Fuller & McClintock, the birds eat the berries and then either regurgitate or pass the seeds intact. However, this winter's unusual combination of freeze and thaw cycles in Sonoma County may have cracked the seed shells and allowed the toxin to diffuse into the fruit's flesh.

The toxin is "syringin lingustrin" (aren't you glad you remembered that name?), an alkaloid. The book only describes symptoms for mammals, including humans, but according to Ms. Bentley, a bird that ate as many tainted berries as these robins appeared to have eaten could indeed end up stone dead. (I probably used the wrong tenses in that sentence.) And that, she says, is what she thinks really happened, sensationalistic headlines to the contrary. The birds died from eating poisoned fruit, not from being drunk.

Stay tuned for Part Three.

Regards
Ray Depew

From: Ray Depew <ray_depew@hp.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Robins drink themselves to death
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 17:01:37 -0700
Organization: HP ICBD EPL

I wrote:

> The FAQ sez:
> "Tb. Some birds get drunk by eating partly fermented berries/fruits."
> Well, here's an article that changes that from a "Tb" to an =D6.. um =D6=
2E.
> well, it certainly solidifies the "Tb".
[AP article about "100 robins drink selves to death" deleted]

Martha Bentley, the "bird expert" quoted in the story, explained to me the latest hypothesis, that the birds were killed by natural toxins in the berries, and not by fermented berries. Then she volunteered that there is plenty of evidence that frozen-and-thawed-and-then-fermented pyracantha berries really can (and do) get birds drunk.

She said that pyracantha used to be planted in the median strips of many California highways, but CDOT took it out after too many birds ate the fermented berries, got drunk, took off and weren't able to reach a safe altitude before veering out into traffic.

Then she related the true case of two drunken redtailed hawks. On December 3, 1990, a farmer brought the hawks to the Bird Rescue Center. They were stupefied, comatose even, but alive. After all the detective work was done, here's what had happened:

The farmer had spread grape pumice (mash from wine grapes) on his fields as a fertilizer. Normally, the winter rains in Sonoma County are enough to break down the grape pumice and wash it into the soil, but the winter of 1990 had weird weather like this winter does, and there was no rain. So the grapes didn't decompose, but fermented instead.

No, the hawks didn't eat the grapes. Starlings did. Lots and lots of them. The starlings got good and drunk and stupefied. Many died, and the ones that didn't die couldn't fly very well. They were all easy pickings for these two patrolling hawks, who made a Christmas feast of starling, marinated au Pinot Noir. And like little boys who eat too many brandied cherries at Christmastime, the hawks also got falling-down drunk.

The hawks were put on wooden roosts in an incubator, and once they recovered from their binges, they flew away none the worse for wear.

I'd say that, based on the word of world-famous bird expert Martha Bentley (hey, the BBC even rang her up today!), we can change that "Tb" to a "T".

And that's The End of the Story.

Regards