Spate of bird deaths down to "drunk flying"

[angelophile]

VIENNA, Austria - It wasn't bird flu, rather flying drunk into windows that killed 40 songbirds found dead in Vienna.

Experts who conducted tests on the songbirds concluded the birds were intoxicated from eating fermented berries.

The birds -- whose remains were carefully examined amid avian influenza fears -- had livers so diseased "they looked like they were chronic alcoholics," Sonja Wehsely, a spokeswoman for Vienna's veterinary authority, told Austrian television Thursday.



All died of broken necks after slamming into windowpanes, apparently after gorging themselves on berries that had begun to rot, turning the juice inside to alcohol, Wehsely said. The juice probably continued to ferment as the birds digested the berries, causing them to become disoriented and fly into the panes, she said.

Their discovery last month in a residential neighborhood of Vienna triggered concerns that bird flu had reached the Austrian capital.

http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/6707222/detail.html