This beautiful mesmerising display is called a murmuration. Watching the birds moving in unison as one dark shape-shifting cloud is fascinating. For centuries it has filled people with wonder and curiosity. How and why do Starlings do this?
Image credit: Roger Skillin
How do the birds move simultaneously en masse, and not collide with each other? Humans sometimes move on mass, notably at rush hour in cities. Although as anyone who has ever sat in a traffic jam will know, not with quite the same beauty and synchronicity as a starling murmuration. How do the birds move individually and yet in unison with each other?
In 2012, Giorgio Parisi a theoretical physicist with the University of Rome led a research team to investigate. They discovered that the movement of one bird affected only its seven immediate neighbours. So if one bird turned left a little, those flying beside it, approximately six or seven of them, would also turn left a little. The movement of these seven birds flying left a little would affect the flight of the six or seven birds immediately beside them, and so on. (See full details in this website)
Why they do this becomes a little clearer when we see the birds in a murmuration being pursued by a predator. Flocks of starlings moving as a twisting, turning, shape-shifting cloud, have safety in numbers because it is hard for a predator, such as a sparrowhawk, to isolate and pursue one individual within such a mesmerizing display. At Fen Drayton Lakes, they do this shortly before coming to roost in the relative safety of the reed beds.
As highly gregarious birds starlings form large flocks throughout the year, but particularly in winter when food is scarce. They eat insects and fruit, and at RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes enjoy the relative safety and food to be found in the reeds.
Sadly in the wider countryside starling’s numbers are in decline. Possibly due to changes in farming which affect the insects upon which they eat, numbers of starlings have declined by 66% since the mid 1970s according to long term monitoring by the British Trust for Ornithology.
They are regarded as a red list species on the red data species list, and are a bird of serious conservation concern. Whilst there have undoubtedly been more starlings in our recent past, their current murmurations at RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes are still well worth watching.
The best time to see them is at dusk when the light starts to fade. Although they do not display every night, it’s still impressive to see large flocks of them coming in to roost, and you may be lucky enough to see the mesmerizing display of a starling murmuration. As Roger Skillin recorded this amazing display in early October.