Watch a Mesmerizing Swarm of Starlings

Called a murmuration, this defensive behavior is inspiring computer programming and other applications. Flocks of acrobatic starlings have long delighted observers, from Shakespeare to the present day. The birds--sometimes by the thousands--often seem to move as one, coursing through the air at breakneck speeds, turning on an instant. We recently published video of a beautiful starling swarm in the Netherlands. So many wings can be heard flapping in that video that it's easy to get why starling swarms are called murmurations.