Today, after a week of Arctic blast cold weather in NC, I’ve seen thousands, really, of starlings flocking. This morning, one flock, landed on the field next door, with a big impressive whoosh, dug into the ground for food. All day, there have been thousands, in different groups, flying by. I can’t recall seeing this many in NC ever, so figure it must be the really cold weather.
Hoping Colibri will see this and have an answer: Are they coming down from northern climes, or is this a response to cold weather; ie, flocking to keep warm?
I wonder if it has to do with die-offs secondary to the cold? After West Nile cut down the crow population in central California, the birds had to go farther than usual to form their traditional winter flocks. As a result, the winter flocks were much larger than usual.
The peak population of starlings and blackbirds for one area of Gibson County, Tennessee – near Milan – during the early 1970s was eleven million! This was my home county and I remember the invasion very well.
Where they chose to locate is part of the weirdness. These birds had as the center of their attention the grounds of the United States Arsenal outside of Milan. You would think that a few test firings would scatter these birds. Nothing simple like that worked.
The powers in charge at that time waited until the temps were well below freezing and they sprayed the birds with some substance. I was told at the time that three million froze to death. Since then I believe I read that it was seven or eight million.
What in the hell did they do with all that many dead birds? It chills me to think of it.
I do know that a lot of people from that area and radiating outward have histoplasmosis – moreso than in an average population. It’s a disease of the lungs. My doctor discovered mine through a spot of my lungs. I do have a lot of respiratory problems.
Up until reading this report, I had thought that most, if not all, of the birds were starlings. But actual starlings accounted for about 9% of the population. They tended to stay year round.
These megaflocks happen all the time in the UK. There’s a large one that happens everynight at an RSPB reserve near Oxford, and also one near Gretna. There’s a video of the Oxford flock here, and later in the video it shows smaller flocks merging into the larger one. It also gives three reasons for the flocks: to keep warm, to keep safe (no bird of prey can surprise a massive flock) and the dominant males are all jockeying for the best position.
What an excellent video. I must drive over and check it out.
I saw such a flock over Termini station in Rome a few years ago. It was utterly freaky - like a gigantic amoeba. I thought they were feeding on clouds of insects, but the video says otherwise. I guess if they’re going to flock in their millions, they have to do it somewhere.
As far as I know, starlings routinely gather into flocks that would be scientifically described as “humongous.” I’ve fairly frequently seen spectacular, seemingly endless streams of them flowing like a river across the sky here in Virginia over the course of years.
You may be experiencing them moving to a location they have not previously occupied (perhaps in search of food) moreso than suddenly changing their flocking habits.
Starlings do migrate out of the northern part of their range in North America during the winter, so I would expect that especially cold weather could force them further south than normal. However, I would also expect that cold weather could force flocks to consolidate more in single roosts for warmth at night, so it could be some of both.
I haven’t seen big flocks of anything since the late 70’s.
Growing up in Indiana and Tennessee we used to see large flocks of different birds throughout the year. In '77 to '80 or so, we had starlings by the millions. After several eradication programs, they finally sprayed them with water on cold nights and they would freeze and drop.
I agree with Sailboat that this is common behavior for starlings, particularly in winter. I drive home from work through farmland, and I see large flocks of starlings often during my commute. The swirling flocks that I see must number in the tens of thousands.
My general impression is that this behavior is both seasonal and related to roosting for the evening.
When I lived in a city on Northern England in the 1980s huge numbers of starlings came into the city centre at night in winter to roost on the buildings, drop their mess everywhere, and make Hitchcock noises all night.