Last November we posted a beautiful video of a shape-shifting flock of starlings, known as a murmuration, making patterns in the Irish sky. Today we bring you a similarly beautiful film, but with an added element of drama. In a scene from the BBC series “Earthflight,” narrated by David Tennant, one of nature’s most fearsome aerial predators, the peregrine falcon, swoops down into a dense cloud of birds for what promises to be an all-you-can-eat starling buffet. The outcome may surprise you. The astonishing footage was shot in Rome, where millions of the birds flock every winter. For more on the spectacle of starlings over Rome, be sure to see the 2007 New York Times audio-visual presentation featuring photographs by Richard Barnes, and the accompanying essay by Jonathan Rosen.
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via: 3 Quarks Daily
Amazing birds, both prey & predator. Beautifully made video – just stunning!
Clearly this falcon needs an area of effect attack.
Absolutely amazing!!!
half of those birds were female and the falcon had a 50% chance of being female.
its so sad that commentators keep calling these animals ‘him’ instead of ‘it’.
such a beautiful murmuration – thank you