If you’ve noticed an alarming number of birds around Lubbock acting like they just lost a fight with gravity—and then losing the fight with life—that’s not your imagination. The South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center says they’re seeing a major spike in sick and dead birds across town, and avian flu is the likely culprit. We’re talking 10–15 reports a day, sometimes with volunteers picking up 30 dead birds at once. Totally normal stuff for January.
According to the center, this started ramping up around mid-November, with geese being the early warning system nobody asked for. One bird was tested in early December, and surprise: positive for avian flu. Since then, the symptoms have been about as subtle as a Texas Tech loss—birds spinning in circles, twitching, and showing discharge from their eyes, nose, and mouth. Nature’s way of saying, “Please stop interacting with me.”
And yet, here we are. The rehab center is begging people to do the absolute bare minimum: don’t touch the birds. Don’t rescue the birds. Don’t heroically scoop up the goose like it’s a dropped toddler at United Supermarkets. Instead, call Lubbock Animal Services and let professionals handle it. Apparently, this needs to be said out loud.
As one staffer gently suggested, not everything deserves an “automatic response.” Which is a polite way of saying: stop grabbing diseased wildlife with your bare hands. A bold ask, apparently, in a city where common sense occasionally takes a sick day.
So the big takeaway is: if it’s spinning, twitching, and leaking fluids—maybe don’t pick it up. But then again, this is Lubbock.