Mystery after 20 birds found ‘decapitated’ in small town
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Residents were baffled when they found around 20 ‘decapitated’ birds in Scotland. A cluster of houses beside an industrial estate on the north bank of the River Forth have become a site of mystery since the December 30 discovery. Nothing like this has been seen before in Harbour Way, Alloa, a town of 14,000 people in Clackmannanshire, where the river becomes the Firth of Forth.
![[NAFFERTON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 18: Officials from the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) dispose of culled ducks at a farm near Nafferton, East Yorkshire where a strain of bird flu has been confirmed on November 18, 2014 in East Yorkshire, England. Health officials will cull 6000 ducks and have imposed a six mile exclusion zone to contain the spread, although any risk to public health is said to be very low. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_233172315-feaa.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
One resident, who asked to stay anonymous, told Alloa Advertiser: ‘In over seven years staying in the Harbour Way area, I have never seen scenes that I have just witnessed this morning. ‘Occasionally, over the previous years, a bird will be found dead in the water, but 15-20 dead birds of different breeds, all decapitated and deposited on the silt indicate such a macabre ritual to the suffering and death of the birds. Very strange.’.
The Scottish Government has now launched an investigation into whether the dead animals had bird flu. Avian flu has many symptoms, including a swollen head, twisting head or neck, and drooping wings. But the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) does not list headlessness among them.
The Scottish government has not explained why they are testing the birds for avian flu, or why they may have been found ‘decapitated’. A spokesperson told the Advertiser: ‘As part of the Great Britain dead wild bird surveillance scheme, scientific samples were collected from a small number of gulls, seabirds and waders found dead at a location in Alloa to be tested specifically for avian influenza virus.
