Fifty cedar waxwing birds migrating north through Austin got drunk on fermented yaupon berries, keeled over and died in the courtyard of the offices of the state Dept. of Aging and Disability Services on Monday, says state Dept. of Health Services spokesman Doug McBride. A drunk waxwing will do things it wouldn’t normally do – like repeatedly fly into a plate glass window – or won’t do the things it would normally do to protect itself – like puff out its chests to stay warm overnight – either, McBride says, can spell disaster for the little yellow-chested dark-masked bird. Nonetheless, says McBride, the bird deaths posed no public health threat – unless, of course, you “happen to come between a plate glass window and a drunk bird.”
This article appears in March 2 • 2007.