That's the explanation I read when this was released the other day. The birds closer to the wire bore the brunt of the shock as it arc'd out to birds not even t

That's the explanation I read when this was released the other day. The birds closer to the wire bore the brunt of the shock as it arc'd out to birds not even touching the wire. You can see where the bulk of the dead birds fall in line with the wire, and get more sparse as they're distributed outward. Then, a few of them are merely stunned, and get up to fly away.