Watch: 'Murmuration' of birds over Great Falls (videos at link)

[Ptah]

On Saturday evening, people glancing at the sky over parts of Great Falls may have seen a rather unusual sight: a murmuration - a large flock of birds that move in parallel, mimicking the moves of surrounding birds, creating a "moving cloud" of activity.

It happened between about 6:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m., as the birds swooped and swirled again and again, creating a mesmerizing display that could be seen for miles.

https://www.krtv.com/news/great-falls-news/watch-murmuration-of-birds-over-great-falls

[brer cat]

1. That is a mesmerizing sight.

[calimary]

7. That's a perfect word for it, brer cat.

Mesmerizing.

TOTALLY!!!

An absolute marvel.

[TygrBright]

2. Easy to see the shadow of a flying dragon there... n/t

[hermetic]

3. Wow!

750,000? Would love to see IRL.

[Maraya1969]

4. That is a prime example of our interconnectedness. Not just with birds

but with all. Perhaps we can't see human mmuration because we are too close, just like the birds don't know they are making those wonderful designs.

[3auld6phart]

5. The still picture

Looks like the C scan picture of my stroke of August 5. Survived it Okay
Now,the question is which one o those Starlings is the leader?

[MontanaMama]

6. Beautiful!

Thank you for posting this.

[JudyM]

8. Beautiful. Physicists explain...

From the article, quoting Hoe Stuff Works:

Italian physicists used more than 400 photos from several videos to find out, plotting the position and speed of birds as they flocked. From that, they built a mathematical model that identified the optimal number of flock-mates for each bird to track.

Turns out the magic number is seven: Each bird keeps tabs on its seven closest neighbors and ignores all else. Considering all these little groups of seven touch on other individuals and groups of seven, twists and turns quickly spread. And from that, a whole murmuration moves. The scientists' findings were published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology in January 2013.