Birds of a feather: Video of hundreds of starlings gliding over Sengkang estate captivates residents

When someone says birds of a feather flock together, they probably have seen this somewhere before.  

Hundreds of birds flying in sync – as though performing together in the air – was spotted in a viral video taken at Sengkang on Oct 1.

A resident living at Block 318A Anchorvale Link captured a 40-second video of the spectacular aerial displays and shared it with Shin Min Daily News, garnering over 70,000 views.

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According to the Nature Society (Singapore) Bird Group, this phenomenon is also known as murmurations, when hundreds of birds – the Daurian Starling in this instance – fly together to create elaborate and coordinated patterns in the sky.

The Daurian Starling, a migratory bird, usually arrives in Singapore in September and October. They move south to avoid winter in the north and do so in large numbers (estimated at between 30,000 and 50,000), according to the Bird Ecology Study Group.

The birds in the video appear to be a "mixed flock", Nature Society (Singapore) Bird Group committee member Alan Owyong told AsiaOne, adding that the Asian Glossy Starling is known to join the flock during these murmurations.

Owyong, 75, who has been birdwatching for over 30 years, said that such movements are common in the evening before the birds find a place to roost, which may be near a group of trees in a Sengkang estate. 

Also, the roosting site acts as a place for exchanging information among the birds.

He shared that some researchers believe that these birds flock this way because of "safety in numbers" against predators or to increase their chances of survival.

Some of the known predators include hawks and falcons, meanwhile younger starlings can be eaten up by owls, raccoons, rats and domestic cats.

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zakaria@asiaone.com