Birds in Flight, flying in the clouds at flocks of Starlings at Blackpool, Lancashire, UK. Starling murmuration at sunset. One of the great birding spectacles of the winter is the starlings' pre-roost assembly. Prior to settling down for the night, flocks of these gregarious birds swoop around until there is one enormous, swirling black mass. In the winter up to a million birds, swarm, swoop, shift, swirl and twirl, moving as one while performing amazing aerial acrobatics. this ballet at dusk is a pre-roosting phenomenon known as starling murmuration.

---

Size: 4158px × 2772px
Location: Blackpool, Lancashire, UK
Photo credit: © MediaWorldImages / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: airborne, behavior, behaviour, bird, birds, british, camera, clouds, coast, coastal, common, communication, dawn, dense, design, display, diving, dusk, england, europe, european, feather, flight, flock, flocking, flocks, fly, flying, formation, formations, freedom, gatherings, gregarious, group, grouping, groups, history, horizon, horizontal, huge, isles, isolated, kiosk, lancashire, lancs, late, male, man, march, mass, migrant, migration, murmuration, native, natural, nature, north, north-west, northern, outdoor, pack, passerine, photographer, photographing, pier, population, populations, resort, roost, roosting, roosts, rural, sea, seaside, shape, silhouette, site, sky, species, sphere-, spring, starling, starlings, structure, sturnidae, sunset, swarm, swarming, swooping, team, thousands, tight, togetherness, uk, urban, waterfront, wild, wildlife, winter