If you are lucky, staring in November and December you could find yourself deep in an autumnal or winter murmuration. It is that beautiful dance of nature–at first glance it could seem frighting. You may feel locked in an Alfred Hitchcock horror.. But it’s all good, seriously. It is meant to happen.. it is weird. It is creepy. It is beautiful.
To make a murmuration, as many as 750,000 birds might join together in flight.
The birds spread out and come together. The flock splits apart and fuses together again. Murmurations constantly change direction, flying up a few hundred meters, then zooming down to almost crash to the ground.
They look like swirling blobs, making teardrops, figure eights, columns and other shapes. A murmuration can move fast — starlings fly up to 50 miles per hour.
Every year, I seem to personally get lucky and witness one or two.. today it happened while the light December snow was falling. Could not have been a more perfect union of two natural occurrences fused together into an amazing tapestry.. I was even lucky enough to snap a quick photo before the birds took flight with a loud whoosh and gust!
GOT TO KEEP IT MURMURATED
So why..?
Scientists have developed a whole set of theories..
Maybe a murmuration is a visual invitation to attract other starlings to join a group night roost.
Perhaps spending the night together keeps the starlings warmer as they share their body heat.
It might also reduce the chance an individual bird would be eaten overnight by a predator such as an owl or marten.
But what is interesting is how the murmuration starts: It just does! Like a dance rave gone off a deep end, it just keeps getting bigger and louder..
From what has been observed and studied, it appears that murmurations have no leader and follow no plan. It appears that movements are coordinated by starlings observing what others around them are doing. They begin to mimmick. Birds in the middle can see through the flock on all sides to its edge and beyond. Somehow they keep track of how the flock is moving as a whole and adjust accordingly. They can take off in various patterns but they all move in the same pattern at the same time.. There is no regular motion, noises can startle them and they will briefly gust up, but quickly come back down. Eventually after a certain of time has passed, they leave just as quickly as they arrived…
THE FIRST MURMUR
According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
All the European Starlings in North America descended from 100 birds set loose in New York’s Central Park in the early 1890s. The birds were intentionally released by a group who wanted America to have all the birds that Shakespeare ever mentioned. It took several tries, but eventually the population took off. Today, more than 200 million European Starlings range from Alaska to Mexico, and many people consider them pests.
I have my own personal videos taken on lackluster technology of murmurations through the years, but none can compare with what is already existent on Youtube.. Here are a few videos for your amazement:
NATURE IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.