Murmuration

A nightly gathering of thousands of birds called a “murmuration” has captured the attention of entertainment-starved people in Northern California.

"Oh! I wasted most of my morning crawling to a murmuration of starlings, which I foolishly mistook for congregation of plover."

The same dynamics can be seen in starlings: On clear winter evenings, murmurations of the tiny blackish birds gather in Rome’s sunset skies, wheeling about like rustling cloth.

Professor Anne Goodenough, an applied ecologist at the University of Gloucestershire who led the research, said: ‘It appears murmuration has become the norm – a general way for the starlings to stay safe from predators.’