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Hundreds of blackbirds descend on Texas Walmart parking lot

By Ben Hooper
Blackbirds cover the parking lot of a Walmart in Houston. Screenshot: Tami Denny/Facebook
Blackbirds cover the parking lot of a Walmart in Houston. Screenshot: Tami Denny/Facebook

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HOUSTON, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- A Walmart shopper in Houston captured video of a scene out of Hitchcock when hundreds of blackbirds descended on the parking lot.

Tami Denny posted a video to Facebook showing the Sunday evening scene at the Walmart parking lot, where hundreds of blackbirds were covering the pavement and parked vehicles like a scene out of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

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"Unbelievable! Invasion of the blackbirds," she said in the video.

Denny experiments at the end of the video with honking her horn, which predictably causes the birds to fly away from her vehicle.

"This is crazy....they were on every car in the parking lot AND on the ground," Denny wrote in the video's description.

Denny said she's seen similar gatherings around town.

"I have seen this before at Walmart, but I've also seen it at Neiman Marcus, the Galleria and they used to be down in Saks," she told KTRK-TV.

Hannah Bailey, head of the bird collection for the Houston Zoo, said blackbirds gather for numerous reasons, including to find food, to search for warmer areas as the temperatures cool, and for safety in numbers.

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"They are part of our environment and help with insect control throughout our area, so while they might be messing up your car, remember they are eating bugs and mosquitoes, so be happy for that," Bailey said.

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