It might also reduce the chance an individual bird would be eaten overnight by a predator such as an owl or marten. One theory is that spending the night together keeps the starlings warmer as they share their body heat. Scientists think a murmuration is a visual invitation to attract other starlings to join a group night roost. Unlike the V formations of migrating geese, murmurations provide no aerodynamic advantage. After maybe 45 minutes of this spectacular aerial display, the birds all at once drop down into their roost for the night. Murmurations form about an hour before sunset in fall, winter and early spring, when the birds are near where they’ll sleep. ‘Flight of the Starlings’ by Jan van IJken was shot in the Netherlands the audio lets you hear how a murmuration gets its name.
This special kind of flock is named for the sound of a low murmur it makes from thousands of wingbeats and soft flight calls. The European or common starling, like many birds, forms groups called flocks when foraging for food or migrating. A murmuration can move fast – starlings fly up to 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers per hour). They look like swirling blobs, making teardrops, figure eights, columns and other shapes. Murmurations constantly change direction, flying up a few hundred meters, then zooming down to almost crash to the ground. The flock splits apart and fuses together again. As many as 750,000 birds join together in flight. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to do flocks of birds swoop and swirl together in the sky? – Artie W., age 9, Astoria, New YorkĪ shape-shifting flock of thousands of starlings, called a murmuration, is amazing to see.
#Starling flock series
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages.
0 kommentar(er)
