Drunken Birds?

My sense of the absurd was grabbed and throttled today by reports of drunken birds falling from the sky down under. In particular, red-collared lorikeets seem to be eating something that leaves them too drunk to fly and/or stand. It is not like a red-collared lorikeet is that inconspicuous of a bird to begin with:

Red-collared Lorikeets

(Credit: Mitch Reardon)

Now picture these guys falling out of the sky and trees drunk. As the original report in the Australian Geographic Journal reports:

SEEMINGLY DRUNKEN AND HUNGOVER parrots are dropping out of the sky in the Northern Territory and experts are at a loss to explain why.

The red-collared lorikeets lose coordination and pass out after eating a mystery food, Lisa Hansen, of the Ark Animal Hospital at Palmerston, near Darwin said on Thursday. Red-collared lorikeets are an NT subspecies of the rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus rubritorquis).

"It happens every year around this season, they lose all balance and we find them fallen out of trees and the sky," she says. "Unless someone intervenes, they can't fly and will get picked up by predators."

Read more: http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/drunken-parrots-falling-from-sky.htm#ixzz0pwQbWM7r

I can't wait until the crows and robins around here learn which plant leads to intoxication. Think of it - hundreds of crows and robins crashing to the ground all around. The cats would be in seventh heaven. (Unless they decide to hit the catnip instead.)

Drunken birds do happen every once in a blue moon around here when berries ferment on the bushes and the birds imbibe, but it usually isn't to the point they cannot stand up - it just makes them fly a little funny and poop a lot.

Are your birds hitting the sauce as summer begins (actually winter down under)?