Yesterday, while walking out to the parking lot, after work, I saw this:
I had never seen anything like this before – thousands of birds, flying in certain formations.
It turns out this type of flight pattern is referred to as a Starling Murmuration.
How do they not run into each other?
It turns out that starlings can fly in these massive groups, especially during the winter months (they gather members from migrating flocks) – they basically watch what the birds next to them are doing and follow suit, kind of like dancers in a chorus line. But scientists suspect there is a much more complex process going on during these formations and flight patterns. It seems each starling is connected somehow with every other starliing in the flock, so they move as one.
Whatever the science behind it is – it is a fascinating , and a very rare occurence to witness.