starlings on Otmoor

www.keepturningleft.co.uk for more bird films. The starlings are an astonishing thing to see - Near Oxford - England. This was filmed at an RSPB reserve called Otmoor. It is the most remarkable thing I have ever seen - and as a video camerman I have seen some pretty amazing things.

The music is from a companny called CSS Music. The track is "soaring with the sun" - .

I have just received this

Hi, Dylan. I got your contact information from your beautiful YouTube video published in February 2007.

Audubon Magazine published a wonderful article about starling flock behavior earlier this year: http://www.audubonmagazine.org/features0903/truenature.html
.
My favorite segment from the article:

Like drivers on a freeway, starlings dont appear to mind having neighbors nearby on their sides—or above and below, for that matter—as long as they have open space ahead. That makes sense, since the presence of a clear path in the direction of travel minimizes the likelihood of collisions should the birds need to shift their course abruptly, as is likely when a falcon attacks. But whats really nifty about this spatial asymmetry is that the researchers have been able to use it to calculate the number of neighbors to which each starling pays close attention—a quantified elaboration of Pottss chorus line idea. By looking at correlations between the movements of neighboring starlings, they can show that each bird always pays attention to the same number of neighbors, whether theyre closer or farther away. How many neighbors is that? Six or seven, says Cavagna, who points out that starlings in flocks can almost always see many more nearby birds— but the number may be closely tied to birds cognitive ability.

The direction of the flock can be coordinated by each birds tracking six or seven other birds. Remarkable. This is a very different kind of cognitive skill.

if you want to know more about the science try this

http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/Flocking

Dylan

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Starlings
• flock
• Birds
• flight
• nature

[barnzvideoz]

Sometime in the next 24 hours the universe is going to show off just for you. It could be something spectacular or something as simple as your everyday coffee tasting especially rich this morning. Take a moment to appreciate the gift, the universe likes to know you’re paying attention; in fact may seem to gift you more often. Enjoy your day(s). Peace! Thanks for sharing, Dylan.

[Jakewejo]

Thank you for sharing such first class footage, music, and narration! I'm in awe!

[18wheelerzdavid]

no matter how hard scientist try to either destroy or cover up or completely erase the existence of God, these birds will bring him back

[kimchiman1000]

This is still one of my favorite videos on YouTube.

[YouCubeIt]

Wow, amazing! BTW, here because of Ricard Dawkins

[tonebone8]

@barnzvideoz you have lots of likes!!

[basaratali]

Check out the lion at 3:42

[mateusstock]

wow



[DirtyWalmartShopper]

kill it kill it

[Diavidia]

FANTASTIC !!!!

[chrysanthemumflower]

I wonder, if humans would be able to live like this one day, without bumping into each other , and hindering their energy flow with fights over stupid things... So beautiful! Thank you.

[mslea13]

One day...I'll witness this. Amazing.