![]() Using the video footage they capture, Cavagna and his colleagues reconstruct the positioning and velocity of a flock’s individual birds into computer models. Though starlings can be a nuisance and a threat to native birds, their murmurations are breathtaking spectacles that often draw crowds to watch.Ī peregrine falcon attacks a starling that was separated from the flock, an unusual event that usually leads to a successful capture. In the late 1890s, a group of Shakespeare enthusiasts released about a hundred European starlings into New York City’s Central Park, hoping to populate the area with every bird mentioned in the playwright’s works. Native to the United Kingdom as well as Europe, starlings have become invasive species throughout the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, South Africa, and many other countries where, over centuries, they were introduced either by accident or on purpose. The term is unique to European, or common starlings, one of the world’s most abundant-and adaptable-birds. When they finally descend to their treetop roost, the beating of their iridescent wings creates such a rush of sound that the noise earned the phenomenon its unusual name: a murmuration of starlings. It’s a mesmerizing sight: Thousands of birds move in unison through the evening sky, whirling and swooping as if performing a highly synchronized ballet.
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