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Why Are Hundreds Of Birds Perched On Natomas Power Lines?

NATOMAS (CBS13) — Hundreds of birds call power lines along Interstate 80 home, piquing one CBS13 viewer's curiosity.

Birds of a feather are certainly flocking together on three power lines in Natomas, just off of westbound Interstate 80.

Maybe you've seen the hundreds of pigeons that seem to be perched there all day, every day.

Bird control expert Ian Hollandsworth gave CBS13 some insight after Marilynn Brewer had a question for us.

"They're always here and especially in the wintertime. There's even more than this in the wintertime," she said. "I've Googled it, I've looked on the internet, and I couldn't find an answer."

And Hollandsworth had an answer.

"Any place you have a lot of birds nesting, or a food source for pigeons, they group together," he said. "They're just like fish in that they'll school and stay in a large group for safety and they just like to sit somewhere high where they can look down on that food source."

So where is that food source?

"All of these grass fields on the side of the freeway and the side of the ravine here are the food source for them they let these grasses get real high before they cut 'em down and there's just a tremendous amount of seed there," he said.

Bottom line, they're like a lot of creatures, motivated by easily accessible food and water.

"Here they've got the waterway, as well as all this grass that's cut on the side of the freeway, on the side of the farm fields, and that's a regular food source for 'em," he said.

So for now, you can expect these wires to continue to sag, but this performance is far less exciting.

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