Flock Of Starlings In Autumn, Lüdershagen, Germany Royalty-Free Stock Photo

The starlings are generally a highly social family. Most species associate in flocks of varying sizes throughout the year. A murmuration describes both the flocking of starlings, as well as their consequentially large flight formations. Collectively, though, starlings transform into something else entirely. Together, in flight, in mesmerizing flocks that sometimes number in the hundreds of thousands, they are a breath-stealing wonder, a pulsating, swooping, living, harmonized whole, seemingly defying the laws of nature while defining nature itself.