Do starlings only mumurate once?Įach night, before starlings head into their winter roosting site, starlings may form murmurations when there are sufficient numbers in the flock. If you want to spot a murmuration then head out an hour before sunset and wait patiently as the sun goes down. Dusk is the transition from sunset to night time, which gets earlier as winter progresses until the December solstice, at which point dusk starts getting later again. Starlings tend to murmurate at dusk whilst it’s just about still light. What times of day do starlings murmurate? A particularly cold spell in September might prompt starlings to roost earlier than usual, but this is most common in November until February or even March on a colder year.
In the UK, most of Europe and North America, starlings murmurate when winter begins in earnest. As dusk arrives, the starlings set off for their communal roost in one of the most staggering natural spectacles of all. In the morning, usually between the hours of 6:30 am and 7:30 am, starlings tend to leave their roosts all at once, which is a magical and dazzling display in itself. Starlings are gregarious birds and they don’t just flock together to roost and form murmurations, but to feed as well. Murmurations dazzle predators in a similar way to how they dazzle us. Whilst the flock gathers momentum, the swirling murmuration helps the starlings avoid and ward off predators, which is one reason why starlings likely murmurate. This enables birds to share body heat and make the most of their chosen safe roosting sites. A starling roost might be packed with some 500 birds per cubic metre and the total roost community can number in the millions. Prior to roosting, Starlings have to gather in a large flock which starts relatively small and grows into the hundreds, thousands and possibly even the millions. Murmurations have fascinated ornithologists over the years.įirstly, starlings tend to roost communally.
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