Residents in a Cumberland County, N.J., community were left wondering what caused dozens of birds to drop dead from the sky earlier this week.

Residents along Peach Drive in Millville found at least 80 dead birds -- mostly red-winged blackbirds -- on the ground, having fallen from trees and the sky.

"Crazy -- something out of a movie," said resident Michelle Cavalieri, who saw the birds fall.

The birds caused a bloody mess on roadways in the residential neighborhood.

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"They’d get up and try and fly and they were out of control so they’d crash and fall again," said resident Jim Sinclair. "It was just strange."

Animal control, public health officials and other emergency crews were on the scene Tuesday morning collecting dead birds to try and figure out exactly what caused so many of them to die.

Cumberland County Public Information Officer Troy Ferus said the birds' death likely was caused by something they ate -- a granular pesticide put down legally by nearby Ingraldi Farms.

One of dozens of birds that was found dead on the ground in Millville, N.J.

"Preliminary investigation gives us the impression that.. he had problems with birds," said Ferus. "He applied for and got a permit for a product that kills birds and that’s what it seems to have been effective at doing."

Here is the county's press release on the incident: 

The Department of Health reports that Monday evening Ingraldi Farms applied a granular pesticide intended and approved to cull birds, causing an unusually high volume of dead birds in the area of Ingraldi Farms and Whitemarsh Estates in Millville.

The material used; Avitrol Double Strength Corn Chops (EPA reg. # 11649-5) is approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and intended to be used for bird control for Blackbirds, Brewer's Blackbirds, Cowbirds, Grackles, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Rusty Blackbird, Starlings and Yellow-Headed Blackbirds.

In the past, Ingraldi Farms has also used Avian Control (EPA reg. # 33162-1) a ready to use liquid repellent intended to be used for bird control for Geese, Gull, Pigeon, Crows, Starlings, House Sparrows, Blackbirds, Grackles and House Finches.

Ingraldi Farms is licensed through the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to apply pesticides on their farms and has been working with the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife to alleviate the crop damage done by large flocks of birds. Remedies include auditory shock, hunting and pesticides. Ingraldi Farms has estimated a crop loss of $15,000 so far, due to the birds eating their crops.

Bird specimens have been collected and are being sent to the NJ-Department of Environmental Protection Laboratory for testing.

No one at Ingraldi Farms would talk to NBC10's Ted Greenberg when he went there for comment.

Officials say the dead birds are not toxic, but that any member of the public that encounters a dead bird should use gloves when picking it up and wash their hands thoroughly after handling and disposing of it in the trash.

But they put out a call to residents Tuesday afternoon that urged residents to remain inside "due to an odor and the death of several birds in the area."

Recently, bird kills have happened in various locations around the world -- possibly none more famous than the New Year’s Eve death of hundreds of blackbirds in Arkansas.

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Flocks of birds falling en masse from the sky in Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky and even Sweden is strange, but these mysterious mass deaths don’t hold a candle to the “Kentucky Meat Shower” of 1876 when it comes to avian oddities.

“Flesh Descending in a Shower. An Astounding Phenomenon in Kentucky – Fresh Meat Like Mutton or Venison Falling  From A Clear Sky,” read the headline in the New York Times on March 10, 1876.
 
A second Times article the next day provided more detail on the strange occurrence.

“Mrs. Crouch, of Olympian Springs, Ky., was employed in the open air and under a particular clear sky, in the celebration of those mysterious rites by which the housewife transmutes scraps of meat, bones and effete overshoes into soap,” it said. “Suddenly, there descended upon her a gentle shower of meat.”    

For a couple of minutes, it continued, big pieces of meat, three or four inches square, fell all over Mrs. Crouch’s yard. The meat “appeared to be perfectly fresh.”

The incident was corroborated for the New York Times by two sources – one Mr. Harrison Gill “whose veracity is unquestionable” and a correspondent of the Louisville Commercial newspaper.

But what exactly was the red flesh? “Two gentlemen” satisfied their curiosity by tasting the meat and determined that it was either mutton or venison, the Times said. 

The incident sparked a lot of curiosity, skepticism and several scientific studies at the time.

The Royal Microscopical Society of Great Britain reported the most plausible explanation in its Monthly Microscopical Journal in July 1876.

After examining several specimens of meat, one scientist determined what fell out of the sky was in fact of “animal origin” (apparently he didn’t trust the taste buds of the locals). Therefore “the Kentucky shower was a veritable ‘meat’ shower.” Beyond that, he admitted that he had no explanation.

However, he relayed the most popular local theory:  a large pack of buzzards must have flown over the area after having eaten some dead horses, then one of the buzzards disgorged himself and the others followed suit, (as is their custom, according to the journal).

The scientist reported that similar occurrences with buzzards had been known to happen in the past, so “it would seem that the whole matter is capable of reasonable and simple explanation, and we may expect to hear of similar downfalls in other localities.”

So watch out!