The common starling ( Sturnus vulgaris ) is a species of bird about 20 centimeters long and with iridescent black plumage that we see especially in the winter season, when they are not faced with the task of caring for their chicks and can take care of their own survival.
It is common to see huge flocks of these birds and you may have wondered why they fly in groups of up to tens of thousands of individuals that move in unison.
A great phenomenon of nature
The hordes of starlings perform a spectacular aerial ballet that appears to be well coordinated . With the movement of these vast clouds of birds, they are able to darken the sky and temporarily erase the sunset due to its magnitude.
Although we can also see these flocks in spring , the displays are much smaller and less impressive than those we can see when the cold arrives.
According to experts, sudden drops in temperature cause a more uniform and abrupt migration of starlings, hence fewer birds congregate in groups. After several days of “air dancing”, the starlings will move in a huge flock and head to warmer areas to spend the winter.
The benefits of flying in flocks
A survival strategy. They fly in flocks because grouping together offers them security , as predators such as peregrine falcons find it more difficult to target a particular bird in the midst of a mesmerizing flock of thousands of small birds. It is a strategy similar to that used by schools of fish in the sea. They also do this to warm up at night and exchange information (such as a good area to get food from).
Grouping also allows birds to fly farther using less energy because when the leading bird in the flock flaps its wings, it creates lift for the birds behind it: each but the first fly in the updraft of the flock’s wing. bird in front
As the weeks go by, more and more birds tend to gather just before nightfall , and there are places where the number of starlings can reach 100,000 copies -or even more-. Seeing thousands of starlings fly and spin in unison, creating swirls of ‘black smoke’ in the sky, is an extraordinary sight.
Starlings are known as ‘partial migrants ‘: birds that migrate in some places but not in others. In Spain, the spotted starling ( Sturnus unicolor) lives in our country throughout the year, but the common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) winters.
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And how come they don’t collide when flying?
Your flight is precisely your means of communication . They usually do it making a lot of noise, so they are informing at all times what their position is to each of the members of the flock; is the key to not collide while flying. The timing of their flight is so amazing that, in the 1930s, the famous English ornithologist Edmund Selous (died 1934) postulated that these ‘spooky’ displays were the result of telepathy between the creatures.
