the.com/starling
the bird that flies in a million synchronized bodies yet brain in none
means A small to medium-sized songbird, often glossy black with iridescent speckles, famous for gathering in vast swirling flocks called murmurations and for mimicking the sounds it hears.
from From Old English 'stærlinc', a diminutive of 'stær' (starling) plus the '-ling' suffix that signals 'little one' — so literally 'little star-bird.' The 'stær' root traces back to a Proto-Germanic source (related to Old Norse 'stari' and German 'Star'), and is likely a cousin of the Latin 'sturnus,' the word that gives the genus its scientific name.
- murmuration
- thousands wheel as one, no leader, no collisions
- vocal thief
- mimics car alarms, phones, even human speech
- shakespeare's fault
- all 200 million American starlings descend from 60 released in 1890
- speed shift
- information ripples through flocks faster than sound
murmuration over rome — thousands of starlings performing synchronized aerial displays over the tiber river and roman landmarks each winter