Stunning
Murmuration 聚 鳥 奇 觀
資料提供者：Sidddney
Chen
10
December 2012
不知為何如此 但很美觀 .
A collection of starlings
is called a Murmuration .... bet you've never seen one
............ it's stunning ...........
It's another mystery of
nature:
No
one knows why they do it....yet, each fall, thousands of starlings dance in the
twilight above England and Scotland. The birds gather in shape-shifting flocks
called MURMURATIONS, having migrated in the millions from Russia and
Scandinavia to escape winter's frigid bite. Scientists aren't sure how they do
it, either. The starlings' murmurations are
manifestations of swarm intelligence, which in different contexts is practiced
by schools of fish, swarms of bees and colonies of ants. As far as I am aware,
even complex algorithmic models haven't yet explained the starlings'
aerobatics, which rely on the tiny birds' quicksilver reaction time of under 100 milliseconds to avoid aerial collisions and
predators in the giant flock.
Despite
their tour de force in the dusky sky, starlings have declined significantly in
the UK in recent years, perhaps because of a decline in suitable nesting sites.
The birds still roost in several of Britain's rural pastures, however, settling
down to sleep (and chatter) after their evening ballet.
Two
young ladies were out for a late afternoon canoe ride and fortunately one of
them remembered to bring her video camera. What they saw was a wonderful murmuration display, caught in the
short video...URL is below. Watch the variation of colour and intensity of the
patterns that the birds make in proximity to one other. And take a look at the
girl in the bow of the canoe watching the aerial display. Click on the site
below & ENJOY!!