Murmuration: A flock of starlings.
I call a flock of starlings Supreme Grace — ballet, music, and nature soaring amid limitless sky.
Yesterday while I was driving, stopped at a traffic light, I held my breath as I found myself gazing at a flock of birds dipping and soaring, looping and circling again and again.
I went online to find out why and how they do it, only to get more questions than answers. There was this about when they do v-formations, but little about their swirly kind of flying in flocks. No one knows whether each bird is flying solo, trying not to hit each other while capitalizing on safety in numbers, or whether they’re truly focused on unity.
Three short videos of starling murmurations I thought you’d enjoy…
I have never seen such a display in real life, just in videos. It is truly an amazing phenomenon. How they communicate as one is beyond our understanding
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I have watched them myself where I used to live. They are amazing birds.
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I always notice the wild goose and ducks fly away end of Autumn and come back beginning of Spring. Not as many as the starlings, but always fantastic to watch.
XxX
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The birds with the V-formation are geese … 😉
We have the phenomenon of murmuring or murmuration also in Denmark, when the starlings gather to fly south. The Danes call it “black sun”. It is really graceful, and I do wonder how they do it without bumping into each other.
But fish do it as well don’t they? Under water, of course, 😉 they swim in these close formations moving gracefully as one big unit.
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Good analogy! Seems to me that bumping a fish in water would just be slippery and not hurt haha
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I saw a documentary on them a while back, and how their numbers are in decline in Europe. It seems to me that they fly in a flock like this to give them safety, like a school of fish. My landlord keeps doves. And he let’s them out to fly every day. It’s really interesting to watch their own seemingly coordinated flying patterns. How one always takes the lead and the others will follow, until another takes over as leader — it’s kind of hypnotic in a way.
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I love how you’ve described it, Jessica 😀
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