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. Scientists arent sure how they do it, either. The starlings' murmurations are manifestations of swarm intelligence, which in different contexts is practised by schools of fish, swarms of bees and colonies of ants or even... online communities. The tiny birds' reaction time must be under 100 milliseconds to avoid aerial collisions and predators in the giant flock. 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 after their evening ballet... Enjoy the dance... Murmuration on Vimeo
I have watched birds do this many times, but never on this large of a scale A website....unitconversion.org has a time conversion table that is good. The sawstop brand of tablesaws claims around 5 millieseconds reaction to stop, I suspect the birds might react in micro and process in nano or even picoseconds, for sure it is incredible to watch.
Fascinating to watch but here in Texas as in other places, Starlings, like Grackles, are a non native species that wreaks havoc on native bird populations by destroying occupied nests....still, I hate to see serious declines in the populations of ANY species Cheers,