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.
A murmuration of starlings is an amazing sight - a swooping mass of thousands of birds whirling in the sky above your head. What's going on? It's basically a mass aerial stunt - thousands of birds all swooping and diving in unison. It's completely breathtaking to witness. We think that starlings do it for many reasons. Grouping together offers safety in numbers – predators such as peregrine falcons find it hard to target one bird in the middle of a hypnotising flock of thousands. They also gather to keep warm at night and to exchange information, such as good feeding areas. They gather over their roosting site, and perform their wheeling stunts before they roost for the night.
Size: 3600px × 2363px
Location: Blackpool, Lancashire, UK.
Photo credit: © MediaWorldImages / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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