A Maryland vulture that appeared to be mourning its long-time mate last month has also died, according to the property owner who has been observing the birds for years.

The birds’ story drew attention when Martha Midgette posted photos and a video of a vulture dragging its mate’s dead body into the yard of her Accokeek home and other vultures gathering around it.

Midgette said her husband spotted the body of the second bird in their yard late last week. She suspects that both birds might have died of avian influenza and said that she reported both deaths to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

“It’s like you hear with the human couples where one dies and then in a few weeks the other one does too,” said Midgette.

The death of the birds on Midgette’s Prince George’s County property comes as a Harford County park is closed following the deaths of dozens of vultures near the Conowingo Dam due to suspected bird flu.

Maryland has documented seven cases of bird flu to date, including outbreaks in Anne Arundel, Caroline, Dorchester, Montgomery, Queen Anne’s and Worcester counties. More than 12,700 cases of bird flu have been recorded across the country.

Midgette said that she and her husband had been occasionally feeding the vultures, who they called “The Old Married Couple” for about seven years. The birds would peck at their windows and bring their fledglings by each year.

Vultures are intelligent birds who mate for life and form deep and lasting bonds with their offspring, said Neil Buckley, a vulture expert and chair of the biological sciences department at the State University of New York, Plattsburgh.

“They’re highly social, much more social than most birds,” said Buckley. Young vultures tend to roost near their parents, so groups of vultures are generally composed of relatives, he said.

Midgette said that since state officials did not arrive to collect the vultures’ bodies, her husband moved them to the woods without directly touching them. (Public health officials advise that people should not handle dead birds during an avian flu outbreak.)

“We laid them side by side in the forest,” she said.