bird behaviour

fifilarue

Hello All
I don't normally post here so excuse me in advance if I sound like a right eegit. A couple of hours ago I heard this racket outside and when I looked out, I noticed what seemed to be hundreds of little birds swarming in the sky behind the house (semi-rural Co Galway). It's been fairly overcast here all day, so I couldn't really see what they were. The noise they were making was incredible. This display lasted for about an hour and a half. They were swirling and chirping and really seemed to be enjoying themselves. About 4.30, everything got very still and quiet. I looked out the window and there they all were, swinging off the ESB wires which cross the field out the back. There were so many of them the wires were sagging in the middle and moving backwards and forwards. One would then hop from its place and drop down onto another wire. This went on for a few minutes and then, all of a sudden, a group of them took off, heading north/northeastwards as far as I could see. The group came from different places on the wires i.e. they weren't necessarily all sitting beside each other. A couple of minutes later, another group took off and this continued until they all disappeared. The whole thing took maybe about 5 minutes. Some groups were larger than others. It was fantastic . Would anybody be able to tell me if they were gathering for the last few hours in order to fly away to somewhere else i.e another country or will they be back tomorrow? I presume what I have seen is fairly commonplace? lastly, what kind of birds were they?

Mothman

I'll jump in to say thet they are Starlings and that they are probably still in area, but that is as far as my knowledge goes.

fifilarue

Mothman-you are right! They must have been starlings (or 'stares' as my Mum calls them)! I just googled 'starlings migrating' and there are some clips on youtube of exactly what I saw. Also here's a link to an article from the Irish Times, where Michael Viney described them as being like squadrons of fighter planes when they take off-that's exactly how I would describe what I saw earlier! The rest of the article is interesting too. Hope they come back as I would love to see it again
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0213/1224264322696.html

littlebug

I instantly thought starling as well They can gather together in huge numbers before going off to roost for the night. it is spectacular to watch!

fifilarue

It happened again this evening!! Got back from work at about 4.30 and there they were again, happy out swinging on the wires. There seemed to be more than yesterday evening though. It really would cheer a person up to watch them

cameramonkey

My mother called them black stares

http://www.archive.org/stream/dictionaryofengl00swan/dictionaryofengl00swan_djvu.txt



Stare: The STARLING. (West and North of England;
Ireland.) The original name of the bird, from A.Sax. steer.
Starling being a diminutive. Occurs in Willughby and
Merrett, while Pennant (ed. 1766) calls the bird by this
name.

STARLING [No. 13]. From A.Sax. Steer, Steam and Sterhjng,
the latter being a diminutive. The name appears in Merrett
and Willughby. Turner (1544) has " Sterl;yTig." (See also
" Stare.") A provincial belief is that if Starlings congregate
in large numbers rain may be expected, but Swainson says
that in Brittany the belief is that it is a sign of impending
cold weather.