AT a distance, a starling looks black and boring—it’s often strutting around and is the bully of the bird table. Close up, its glossy emerald-green and deep-purple plumage has a beguiling beauty of its own, with an iridescent sheen to rival any of the dandies of the bird world. However, it is not its plumage that has brought the starling fame and public attention: it is the pre-roost extravaganza of avian antics, the collective aerial dance known as a murmuration.
From October onwards, our resident population of starlings is boosted by birds migrating from colder European climates. British farmland generally remains unfrozen, giving the vast numbers that overwinter in this country a
