20 October 2009

Starlings


I've seen flocks like this in Kentucky and Indiana. In the U.S. the roost locations for these immense gatherings often become contaminated with a fungus called Histoplasma capsulatum, which can cause human disease. Whether this is true in the U.K. or not, I don't know, because it also depends on characteristics of the underlying soil.

Here's an Audubon Magazine article about flocking behavior.

2 comments:

  1. Dr. Dawkins discusses and explains this phenomenon in his latest book The Greatest Show on Earth.

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  2. When I was a kid this happened in my hometown in the midwest. The city asked a handful of hunters to help out. My dad and I went around town with 12 guages for days, the city did the clean up. They sounded like rotten apples when the hit the ground.

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