The growing bird death rates in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, is a sign of the ecosystem's poor health, environmentalist Karine Danielyan told Panorama.am.

“Poor ecosystem may cause such phenomena. The bird mortality will in tun lead to other consequences, but bird experts had better talk about it,” she said.

Speaking to the news agency, Silva Adamyan, the head of the Bird Center, a Yerevan-based NGO, named poisoning, climate changes, lack of food, magnetic field exposure and diseases among the possible causes of the avian deaths.

The Food Safety Inspectorate is conducting a laboratory expertise to reveal the exact reasons behind the deaths, with its results to be available on Friday, the inspectorate spokesperson, Anush Harutyunyan said.

“The most likely cause is an epidemic, which spreads very quickly. An avian flue is also not ruled out. But I don’t want to make assumptions at the moment not to cause a panic. We are constantly in touch with the citizens and the inspectorate,” Adamyan said.

She says Yerevan residents keep sending them photos of dead birds, including magpies, doves and other species. They have also received bird death alerts from Armenia’s regions.

“They may be linked to one another, but I don’t want to make strong claims in this case,” she said, urging to wait for the results of the laboratory expertise.