Last updated at 19:42, Monday, 01 December 2008

The skies have been turning black above Gretna in a seasonal display by thousands of starlings.

• Video: watch the starling show

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The birds gather every evening to ward off predators by forming huge flocks to hunt for shelter overnight.

Dr Andre Farrar, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, described the display as ‘like a sheet blowing in the wind.’

“They swoop through the sky like one fluid organism,” he said.

“Just as fish swim in shoals for safety, starlings flock to confuse predators such as sparrowhawks, buzzards and peregrines.

“By bunching tightly and swirling and squawking furiously, they’ll confuse and alarm any predator. And after a day feeding together in reed beds and fields, they will converge in huddled flocks to hunt for somewhere sheltered from the wind.”

It is a spectacle that occurs only during the winter and, until earlier this year, scientists were puzzled as to how exactly the birds were able to fly with such simultaneous precision.

They have since discovered that each bird tracks seven others, irrespective of their distance, which is how they stick together.

“They may not have an in-built sonar or radar, like bats, but they do have amazing spatial awareness and very, very quick reactions,” said Dr Farrar.

“Once airborne, they’ll glide along for up to an hour, until suddenly, the leader will spy a good spot for the night and swoop down, like an huge cloud of smoke being vacuumed back into a chimney.”

British starling numbers are thought to have halved to four million in recent years, due in part to a declining insect population.

But their gatherings – or murmurations – are boosted in the autumn by tens of millions escaping chillier Russia and Scandinavia, making this the best time of year to see them.

First published at 11:34, Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk