Quck answer
Starling murmurations are a mesmerizing natural phenomenon where thousands of birds move in unison, creating beautiful patterns in the sky. The science behind this behavior lies in the birds’ ability to communicate through simple rules and local interactions, allowing them to coordinate their movements. Scientists have discovered that these murmurations also serve as a way for the birds to avoid predators and find food. However, there are still many mysteries surrounding these murmurations, and researchers continue to study them to unlock their secrets. Overall, starling murmurations are a stunning example of nature’s complexity and beauty.
Wild Animals
Witnessing a murmuration of starlings is an awe-inspiring encounter with the mysteries of nature. georgeclerk/Getty Images
Individually, European starlings appear as ordinary blackbirds. They are short, stout, and have dark feathers with pointed beaks. They are ubiquitous, with over 200 million residing in North America alone. They sing chirpy tunes and are often considered pests by farmers and backyard growers.
However, when they flock, starlings transform into a breathtaking spectacle. Murmurations of hundreds of thousands of birds create a pulsating and harmonized living organism that seems to defy the laws of nature while embodying it.
Observing a murmuration in mid-air is an encounter with the power and mystery of the natural world. “I think that the core feeling is a sense of awe,” says Mario Pesendorfer, a postdoctoral research associate at the Institute of Forest Ecology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. “The spatial scale of something that is moving very rapidly — which we are utterly unable to do — and the visual patterning that occurs when a lot of individuals are doing the same thing … really mesmerizes us.”
For scientists like Pesendorfer, murmurations spark curiosity and prompt investigations into how swarming animals such as birds, bees, and fish can inform and enhance our lives.
The Secrets of Murmurations
In the 1930s, renowned ornithologist Edmund Selous proposed that birds in murmurations communicated telepathically to coordinate their movements. “They must think collectively, all at the same time… a flash out of so many brains,” he wrote in his book, “Thought-Transference (or What?) in Birds.”
Over time, however, scientists studying collective animal behavior discovered that group movement is more of a rapid response to others in the flock, school, or swarm. The authors of a 2015 paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences wrote that “the rapid transmission of local behavioral response to neighbors” enables such striking synchronicity.
“There are two ways to elicit large group behavior. You can have the top-down control, where you have some kind of leadership or top-down mechanism. Think of a rock show, where the rock star in the front starts clapping his hands and the whole stadium follows,” explains Pesendorfer. “But these murmurations are self-organized, meaning it’s the individual’s little behavioral rules that make it scale up to the large group. To understand this behavior, we have to examine the individual’s local scale, their rules, and the resulting global scale.”
A team of physicists in Italy collaborated with a mechanical and aerospace engineer from Princeton in 2013 to study murmurations. The team plotted the position and speed of birds in flocks using over 400 photos from numerous videos. They created a mathematical model to determine the optimal number of birds each one should track. The results showed that each bird keeps tabs on its seven closest neighbors and ignores all others. The scientists’ findings were published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology in January 2013. The individual birds in the flock are controlled by three factors: an attraction zone, a repulsion zone, and angular alignment. By changing these parameters, the flock can be organized or disorganized. Scientists believe the birds flock to confuse and discourage predators, communicate with each other, and to keep warm. The birds react quickly and synchronize almost instantly due to their high temporal resolution. Craig Reynolds, a computer scientist, built computer models of bird flocking and fish schooling in 1986, which were used for lifelike animation in movies such as “Batman Returns.”
The study of the behavioral patterns of animals like starlings, bees, and bats can have enormous real-life applications, such as programming robots to mimic these patterns. Researchers are drawing inspiration from biology to create responsive behaviors for robots. For instance, Las Cumbres Observatory has 22 robotic telescopes on seven sites that work together to function as one big telescope, enabling us to continually watch phenomena in space as they change. Swarm robotics is a new field that uses information gleaned from the study of starlings to develop new approaches for search and rescue missions, construction efforts, environmental remediation, and medical applications. Swarm robotics could also be used in military applications and to reduce traffic congestion. Understanding the simple decision-making processes that scale up to complex behavior can help us understand patterns in human decision-making processes. The entire North American starling population is descended from a group of 100 birds released in New York City’s Central Park in the 1890s. A murmuration is the flocking behavior of starlings in groups of hundreds or even thousands, which occurs mainly in the winter season. Scientists believe that these patterns are useful for keeping birds safe from predators and for keeping them warm.
FAQ
1. What are starling murmurations?
Starling murmurations are the stunning displays of coordinated and synchronized flight patterns exhibited by large flocks of starlings. These flocks can range in size from a few hundred to tens of thousands of birds, and they move in unison, creating mesmerizing shapes and patterns in the sky. The birds seem to move as one, changing direction and speed in perfect unison. These murmurations usually occur at dusk or dawn and can last anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. Scientists are still trying to understand the mechanisms behind this behavior.
2. Why do starlings murmurate?
The exact reasons why starlings murmurate are still unknown. However, scientists believe that it could be a defense mechanism against predators. When thousands of birds fly together, it becomes difficult for a predator to focus on any one individual bird. It could also be a way for the birds to stay warm during the winter. By flying together in large groups, they can generate and conserve heat more efficiently. Additionally, murmurations could be a way for the birds to communicate with each other or to find food.
3. How do starlings coordinate their movements?
It is still a mystery how starlings coordinate their movements so perfectly. Some scientists believe that the birds are able to communicate with each other using their voices or visual cues. Others believe that the birds may be able to sense the movements of their neighbors and adjust their own movements accordingly. Recent research has suggested that the birds may be able to coordinate their movements using a type of “swarm intelligence,” similar to how ants or bees work together in a colony.
4. Where can you see starling murmurations?
Starling murmurations can be seen in many parts of the world, but some of the best places to witness them include the UK, Italy, and Israel. In the UK, some of the most popular places to see murmurations are at the RSPB reserves at Gretna Green, Ham Wall, and Aberystwyth. In Italy, the best places to see murmurations are at the Riserva Naturale dello Stagnone in Sicily and the Parco della Mandria in Turin. In Israel, the Hula Valley is a popular spot to see murmurations.
5. Are starling murmurations at risk?
While starling populations are generally not considered at risk, their habitats are under threat from habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change. This could potentially impact the ability of starlings to form large flocks and engage in murmurations. Additionally, light pollution could also be a problem, as it can disrupt the birds’ natural rhythms and make it difficult for them to navigate. It is important that we work to protect the habitats of these birds and reduce our impact on their environment to ensure that we can continue to enjoy the wonder of starling murmurations for years to come.
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