Strange Bird Behavior
This video is extremely bizarre. I don’t quite know how to describe this footage, but it’s simply amazing to watch these birds fly in one giant swarm like that, all their flight patterns carefully calculated. Nature truly is beautiful. Take a look.
October 27, 2007 @ 6:13 am
wtf. that is cool. can u imagine if you were stuck right in the middle of all those birds. talk about pwnage. xd
October 27, 2007 @ 6:50 am
Oh god, that was really cool.
But does birds really fly like that for no reason? I’ve seen a “mass” of birds (not like this one though) and they always seems to fly away, not fly in circles… :S
October 29, 2007 @ 11:17 pm
those are bats. they move like one motion because they use echolocation to detect their surroundings and act accordingly
October 31, 2007 @ 3:22 pm
This is fantastic. I have never see flying birds like this.
November 2, 2007 @ 9:25 am
Those are starlings…. not bats…see it all the time.
November 5, 2007 @ 9:36 am
Indeed, they are starlings. They do this dance before settling down for the night. It’s amazing how the group mind dictates the flow. Rather like if you disturb one part of an ant colony, all of them freak out instantaneously in all parts of the colony. There is some kind of psychic link which binds their behaviour. Thus is a model for humankind. Whose instructions are YOU following..?
November 7, 2007 @ 6:15 pm
I have seen a large number of pigeons fly like this from the top of the Spanish Steps in Rome, in the evening. Really neat but strange.
Stirling
November 8, 2007 @ 12:09 am
yeah, those are bats.. swarms like that are bats, not birds. very cool though.
November 10, 2007 @ 2:06 am
Psychic energies? How about a few simple rules that dictate their motion? like stay x far away from other birds as much as possible, but do not go further than y. you can turn at a specific rate and fly at these speeds. I have run these simulations before for school, and it is amazing how fluid the motion is, and how well things stay together.
Oh and ants can feel the vibration when you step on the mound, and those that interpret it as an attack will release Panic pheromones to call others to the site to defend the nest. Ants near where I live build many entrances to their nests, and I have never seen ants “freak out” about another entrance being disturbed.
November 12, 2007 @ 4:06 pm
They definately are starlings and not bats!
You usually see them swarming like that over urban areas at dusk. The birds come together from all over, after having spent their day in and around towns and cities. They then perform their aerobatics just before they settle down to roost… It really is a spectacular sight!
November 12, 2007 @ 10:01 pm
Those birds are “collecting” and “exercising” preparing for a series of long flights south. You may witness this occuring several times in the fall. They will gather until they have a sufficient number to venture the trip…then thy’re gone. They may be a “swallow-like” bird common to the east known a blue martens, I live near the beach and we get to see them every year…it never loses it’s impact.
November 16, 2007 @ 3:54 am
that was photoshopped…the lines are too perfect and the ‘birds/bats’ are out of focus with the rest of the scene…totally fake
December 17, 2007 @ 3:52 pm
I’ve seen purple martin swarm over the everglades and the entire cluster will dive down and envelope a waxmrytle tree probably to pick off insects. Also on TV they filmed qualia in Africa swarming like that in the hundreds of thousands. Yes bats form even more spectacular swarms but those are birds in the video.
March 2, 2008 @ 3:25 am
dude i saw prince do this while riding on a motorcycle and making smug faces. it was cooler then.
April 3, 2008 @ 9:00 pm
These are REAL. I’ve seen similar occurances with just as much perfection in their grouping.Also, they are birds not bats. Its obviously winter in this video, and to see bats swarm in that kind of weather would be rare indeed.
May 27, 2008 @ 11:03 am
It’s not photoshopped. Bats do that, starlings do. There’s many birds that will do this. It’s not all that uncommon.
June 23, 2008 @ 12:41 am
Okay anyone heard of birds flying in swarms and circling around in the sky to keep warm? As said, it’s obviously winter in this video, birds need to keep warm as well and I have seen birds fly in largs swarms to keep warm just before dark and even in the middle of the day. Crows are some of the more common ones out here that do that but I have seen it pleanty of times to know what that is.
August 18, 2008 @ 5:34 pm
thats cool…imagine it to be a huge swarm of locusts or bees
April 20, 2009 @ 9:01 am
Swarms of Black cockatoos and Pink & Grey Galaha’s swarming together? The noise was deafening. Anyone know why?
April 30, 2009 @ 6:27 pm
Sweetness! But I think I would had took off running if I ever seen that amount of birds flying above and around me like that.