Starling murmuration, birds in flight flying at Blackpool, Lancashire, UK. Flocks of starlings at sunset is one of the great birding spectacles of the winter when the starlings' perform a 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.
Early evening, just before dusk, is the best time to see them across the UK as they perform their aerial dance and choose their communal night-time shelter. They roost in places that are sheltered from harsh weather and predators. They tend to roost in woodlands, but reedbeds, cliffs, buildings and industrial structures are also used. During the day, however, they form daytime roosts at exposed places such as treetops, where the birds have good all-round visibility. Autumn roosts usually begin to form in November, though this varies from site to site and some can begin as early as September. More and more birds will flock together as the weeks go on, and the number of starlings in a roost can swell to around 100,000 in some places. The huge gatherings are at their largest in winter, as they are boosted by thousands of migrant birds visiting from Europe for Britain's milder Atlantic climate. Why do they do it? Starlings join forces for many reasons. Grouping together offers safety in numbers – predators such as peregrine falcons find it hard to target one bird amidst a hypnotising flock of thousands.
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Photo credit: © MediaWorldImages / Alamy / Afripics
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