How to see a murmuration

On winter evenings starlings perform their breathtaking aerial ballets, each flock’s numbers swelled by more birds that arrive from colder countries to spend the winter on these isles. These billowing clouds of birds shift, swirl, contract and balloon before they swoop into their roosts for the night, each bird moving with the others in ways that we don’t yet understand. Set against darkening skies, a murmuration is a true spectacle – and a reminder of the kind of natural abundance that our forebears took for granted, something which has now come to feel unusual and special to us.

In spring and summer, starlings don’t flock together as they need to find mates and establish breeding territories. Winter is the time to see a murmuration as they band together to get through the long, cold nights: there’s safety in numbers, a huge flock making it harder for something like a peregrine falcon to pick out an individual. In the roost they generate warmth, too, and it’s also thought that they exchange information about good places to feed.

To find a murmuration you need to think like a starling: you want somewhere where nothing can sneak up on you while you sleep. Reed-beds are a popular choice, either in marshland or on the fringes of lakes, as are isolated woods, and piers and other structures surrounded by water, such as at Blackpool and Brighton. But they will also form over cities if there are good roosting opportunities – and people don’t try to drive them away. Look out for them as the light fails, all flying in one direction, and see if you can follow them to wherever it is they roost.

Failing that, there’s an excellent map showing starling murmurations in the UK here, and one for Ireland here. Check the sunset time and aim to arrive a good half-hour beforehand; wrap up warm and maybe pack a thermos, too. Do take binoculars and a camera, if you want, but make sure you don’t spoil the experience because you’re too busy looking at it via something else. And remember, even with a map, nature isn’t a box-set you press play on whenever you want. Some nights the flock will roost elsewhere, and sometimes they don’t feel like dancing – in which case you’ll value the experience all the more when you do find yourself with a front-row seat.

You can follow Starlings In The UK on X, here, and on Facebook. The image above was taken by Martha Henson.

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Tracking winter with Tiffany Francis-Baker