Enigma Labs 287721 [Murmuration of birds]

[pshap]

I saw Enigma Labs post this one on Twitter and found it intriguing:

Link to Incident Video: LAS VEGAS, NEVADA 89027, UNITED STATES

My first thought it may be something like a locust swarm, viewed from a distance. I don't know if locusts create formations like that or if they would flying at that altitude (or if the altitude is some sort of an illusion).

Nevermind. I don't know how to delete this thread, but it's very clearly a formation of starling birds—a "murmuration".

It's worth noting that the location is close to Nellis Airforce Station Base and Military Training Area.

I'm curious to hear what the hive mind thinks.

 

[Mick West]

Nevermind. I don't know how to delete this thread,

Let's keep it. Explanations are what were looking for here. It's also context for thinking about other eyewitness cases. I found it pretty interesting that they said:

I was driving on Las Vegas Blvd going to Airliquide with a coworker of mine and we look off into that open desert to our east and in the sky these things were Transforming, Metamorphosing, breaking off into smaller and larger sizes and lighter to darker and longer blobs. It was something like I never seen before. And it wasn't birds

Here's a cropped version

It reminds me of the pilots seeing Starlink horizon flares and not recogniszing them. They have seem starlink before (the launch trains, a long string of bright dots), but the SHF look different. So you get "I've seen Starlink, it wasn't Starlink".

Likewise, everyone has seen birds. For people who have never seen a murmuration, it's not birds (to them)

 

[Mendel]

And it wasn't birds

Anytime you see a phrase like that, experience shows the odds are good it's exactly that.

 

[John J.]

A murmuration at closer quarters (just in case anyone doubts they're birds),
posted by USA Today on YouTube


Source: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lX_xAiEBUTo



A definite example of starling flair.

 

[jarlrmai]

I've witnessed starling murmuration quite a few times, we often get >20,000 Starlings roosting at a local reserve, but it's nothing compared to some of the big murmurations that can be 1 million or more birds.

One of my favorite nature experiences was listening to the 20,000 birds after they all landed in the reedbed and were chattering away to each other and it sounded like a whitewater river was flowing past, then a Barn Owl floated over the reeds and as it moved over the Starlings went silent only to resume the chattering as it left. Barn Owls have been known to prey on roosting Starlings.

A spectacular and wonderful sight.

It's worth mentioning that a few other species will perform entrancing group flying, flocks of waders evading a bird of prey will often perform similar displays and Knots are particularly known for this, the two tone nature of the wings adding to the entrancing shapes with a colour flash as they turn around.


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKE3souTqQY

 

[Ann K]

A murmuration at closer quarters (just in case anyone doubts they're birds),
posted by USA Today on YouTube


Source: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lX_xAiEBUTo



A definite example of starling flair.

I've seen them come over land from Lake Erie in a seemingly endless flock, twisting and turning in a long structure with neither the beginning nor the end visible.

 

[Ann K]

It's worth mentioning that a few other species will perform entrancing group flying, flocks of waders evading a bird of prey will often perform similar displays and Knots are particularly known for this, the two tone nature of the wings adding to the entrancing shapes with a colour flash as they turn around.

Your BBC video won't play in the USA, so here's a YouTube video of Knots.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=026Xi1B8Bv4

 

[Kyle Ferriter]

This may be off topic, but "Cabinet of Curiosities", an excellent 2022 horror anthology miniseries by Guillermo del Toro, had an episode based around two ornithologists studying a murmuring and there are some pretty (CGI) shots of birds. You never know what you will learn about by watching TV.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14404632/

 

[FatPhil]

I feel that this needs to be accompanied by a Crocodile-Dundee-accented "that's not a bird ..."

(image link if embedding fails: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/c...9e2aeed5-8b20-4512-93c7-1db8f141a712.jpg.webp )

via: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-68215592 "Wildlife Photographer of the Year People's Choice Award winner"

Starling Murmuration, by Daniel Dencescu

Daniel Dencescu spent hours following the starlings around the city and suburbs of Rome, Italy.

Finally, on the cloudless winter's day, the flock, swirled into the shape of a giant bird.