![]() This group mentality may be why their global colonization has been so successful. “.like a school of fish, there is not a leader of the flock," he said, "but rather each individual bird is watching the birds nearest to it, keeping a set distance from them, and so they are all traveling together and reacting together.” Zachary Slavin, Audubon’s own Citizen Science Program Manager, recently sat down with Voices of America to explain the performance (video above). It’s a breathtaking sight that leaves even the most surly spectators in a state of wonder.ĭespite this seemingly synchronized display of flight, the act is not orchestrated, at least not in the way one might assume. And while birders may disparage these avians for out-maneuvering many native species, they do have one thing going for them: Throughout the fall and winter, starlings gather in roosts that can swell into the tens of thousands, taking over the sky in a beautiful (albeit terrifying), plague-like swarm known as a murmuration. ![]() Since then, their population has exploded to more than 150 million individuals across North America over the last century-that’s almost one bird for every two people in the United States. Native to Eurasia, 60 starlings were released in Central Park in 1890 (as rumor has it, because one Shakespeare lover was trying to introduce all of the Bard’s species to the New World ). European Starling often evoke ire from bird lovers: This populous species is infamous for its destructive and invasive ways, raiding farm fields and orchards with abandon, viciously outcompeting native species, and costing governments thousands of dollars in management plans.
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