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Murmuration
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– here’s another mystery
of nature:
No one knows why they do it. Yet each
fall, thousands of starlings dance in the twilight above England and Scotland.
The birds gather in shape-shifting flocks called murmurations, having migrated
in the millions from Russia and Scandinavia to escape winter’s frigid bite.
Scientists aren’t sure how they do it, either. The starlings'
murmurations are manifestations of swarm intelligence, which in different
contexts is practised by schools of fish, swarms of bees and colonies of ants.
As far as I am aware, even complex algorithmic models haven’t yet explained the
starlings’ aerobatics, which rely on the tiny birds' quicksilver reaction time
of under 100 milliseconds to avoid aerial collisions—and predators—in the giant
flock.
Despite their tour de force in the dusky
sky, starlings have declined significantly in the UK in recent years, perhaps
because of a decline in suitable nesting sites. The birds still roost in several
of Britain’s rural pastures, however, settling down to sleep (and chatter) after
their evening ballet.
Two young ladies were out for a late
afternoon canoe ride and fortunately one of them remembered to bring her video
camera. What they saw was a wonderful murmuration display, caught in the short
video - URL is below. Watch the variation of colour and intensity of the
patterns that the birds make in proximity to one other. And take a look at the
girl in the bow of the canoe watching the aerial display.
Enjoy.
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Thank you so much for that. It was breathtaking. I've never heard of that before.
ReplyDeleteWow. So gorgeous!! Thanks for sharing that!
ReplyDeleteI've seen smaller versions of that but nothing on that scale. It was wonderful!
ReplyDelete