‘Eerie Spectacle’: Are Birds Warning Floridians About Hurricane Milton?

By Bethanie Hestermann

Published

10/09/2024

Some Floridians are taking to social media to share an “eerie spectacle”—sandhill cranes walking through Florida neighborhoods squawking in the hours before Hurricane Milton is set to hit their state. Might the birds be there as a warning? Some people say yes, it’s not a coincidence.

Videos by Outdoors

In one TikTok video with over 6 million views, Chelsea Snyder shows three sandhill cranes walking down a residential street in Tampa Bay emitting loud, urgent-sounding calls. Snyder posted the video yesterday, saying: “Even the birds are warning us to evacuate.”

@chelseaesnyder
the birds are walking through neighborhoods warning us to evacuate #hurricanemilton #fyp #foryoupage #tampabay
♬ original sound – Chelsea Snyder

In another TikTok video with 2 million views, Emily Autumn shared incredibly similar footage showing several sandhill cranes standing around a Florida parking lot making noise. She wrote: “I think they’re warning us.”

@emilyautumnnn
#milton #hurricane #florida #fyp #cranes #birds

♬ original sound – 𝔼𝕄𝕀𝕃𝕐 𝔸𝕌𝕋𝕌𝕄ℕ

Could these birds be a signal that something big is coming? Many commenters are chiming in to say this is no coincidence. The birds instinctively seem to know dangerous weather is coming, and it has altered their behavior.

Whether or not the birds know they’re serving as a warning beacon, when animals act “off,” it can be a sign that something’s going on in nature. In this case, something big is going on. Hurricane Milton is a powerful Category 4 storm charging through the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida. Millions in Florida are under evacuation orders.

The cranes are likely not trying to be Good Samaritans by warning the humans, but their unusual behavior is likely a sign that trouble is headed that way.