Esperance bird mystery deepens

Amanda O'Brien

February 02, 2007 06:00am

Article from: AAP

WILDLIFE officials will kill 15 healthy birds in a bid to discover why thousands of native birds dropped dead from the sky at Esperance, on WA's south coast.

While some birds are returning to the area almost two months after the mysterious deaths sparked worldwide scientific attention, authorities are no closer to knowing what caused the phenomenon.

The 15 healthy birds will be shot or trapped under special licence to provide a "control" sample to check background levels of toxins. These will be compared to levels in the birds that died.