The Smithsonian/ NASA has an article that may support OP's hypothesis (at least concerning the discharge, but not the link with the dead birds).

Electric-discharge Luminescence between Frictional Natural Quartz by Pin-on-disk Method: Possible Origin of Seismo-electromagnetic Radiation

To elucidate mechanisms of electromagnetic radiations before and during earthquakes, electric-discharge luminescence around a frictional quartz interface was investigated using a vacuum tribometer with a pin-on-disk arrangement...

...which causes the electric discharge and the dielectric breakdown of the ambient gas, can generate electromagnetic radiations (Hertz radiations or radiations from electric discharges) or electric-discharge luminescence accompanied with earthquakes.

[link to adsabs.harvard.edu]