Starling murmurations are one of the most underappreciated feats of nature.
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Murmurations are an extreme example of birds' uncanny knack for synchronized flight.
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Yet they also contain sculptural elements: sails made up of small triangles of fabric lashed to supports with string in "Murmurations (Regatta)" (2016) or a whole dress, bodice included, that becomes a confection of interlaced twine in "Murmurations" (2016).
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When the birds gather there, they tend to flock in mixed murmurations, likely for safety.
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Their dazzling murmurations — exquisitely synchronized midair swirls of their gigantic flocks — can black out skies.
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Starlings band together in flocks called "murmurations," which look like giant, ever-changing floating blobs from the ground.
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Murphy's Murmurations series deftly illustrates the metaphorical leap from the everyday object to the visual associations embedded within it.
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But the most interesting starling behavior occurs on winter evenings, when thousands of the birds flock together in murmurations.
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Murmurations are large flocks of birds, most notably starlings, that zip through the sky at high speeds without ever breaking formation.
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I enjoy the exhibits at the MAXXI contemporary art museum, the murmurations of starlings moving like smoke above the umbrella pines.
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At sunset in winter in Spain, thousands of starlings gather in enormous flocks, named murmurations for the low fluttering thunder of their wings.
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NEOT HUVAVA, Israel (Reuters) - Breathtaking "murmurations" - dark, shifting shapes that look like vast dancing clouds - fill the skies of southern Israel and surrounding areas in winter.
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Murmurations, the duo's fifth album, is the first record to even hint at SMD's nasty mid-00s bloghaus roots, but it's less a return than an update that remains distinct from anything they've done before.
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Murmurations, as these starling flocks are also known, are especially intriguing to researchers as there isn't a single bird leading the pack, despite the giant cloud of feathers being able to seemingly turn on a dime.
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Click here to view original GIFI love murmurations or bird swarms or flocks of starlings or whatever the heck you want to call them because from far away they look like they're shapeshifting in the air with the help of dark magic.
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From Gracious, an enormous oil painting of a tiger leaping towards a calmly seated individual in what appears to be a wheat field, to his Murmurations series, double-sided works depicting the fragile elegance of dresses overlaid with different motifs from nature and sailboats, a sense of lingering adventure infuses Murphy's creations.
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Perhaps this feeling comes from the sprawling antlers made of branches in Samuel or the protruding ship sails in Murmurations (Regatta), or maybe this feeling is a reflection of the artist's own history, a somewhat nomadic individual who was born in Chicago, shipped off to Georgia as a child, and currently residing in Brooklyn today.
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"Tone 25 – Touch 25." , Touch. was published in the anthology Murmurations by Nicholas Royle (Two Ravens Press, ).
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Murmurations is the sixth studio album by English electronic music duo Simian Mobile Disco. It was released on 11 May 2018 under Wichita Recordings.
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Staff (20 September 2011). "Bruce Gilbert contributes to Murmurations story anthology." The Wire. Gilbert's latest release, Diluvial, was launched at Beaconsfield Art Works in London on 13 September 2013.
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The birds gather in flocks called murmurations, having migrated in the millions from Russia and Scandinavia to escape the harsher winters there. A nearby sculpture has been approved called the Star of Caledonia.
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On the macro-scale a larger similar phenomenon has been suggested as happening in the murmurations of starlings. The rapidity of change in flight patterns mimics the phase change leading to superfluidity in some liquid states.
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Murmurations was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 75, based on 13 reviews.
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Stacy Chandler, "The Well Pennies Take Joyous Flight with Murmurations - Album Review," No Depression, January 25th, 2019. The album's second single and music video Oh My Blue Sky was premiered by Billboard Magazine who described it as "...the joyful, try-not-to-handclap-along-you-can't 'Oh My Blue Sky' from Murmurations." The band explained, "The song was written as an encouragement for when we're feeling discouraged or worried or just struggling while we try to figure out who we are and what place we have in the world."Gary Trust, "The Well Pennies' "Oh My Blue Sky" Premiere: 'There's life and light all around us'," Billboard, January 24, 2019.
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He is married to Juliet West, author of the historical novels 'Before the Fall' and 'The Faithful', and contributor to 'Murmurations: An Anthology of Uncanny Stories About Birds'. Growing up he lived in walking distance of Prenton Park and became a fan of Tranmere Rovers F.C.
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Their swarm behaviour creates complex shapes silhouetted against the sky, a phenomenon known locally as sort sol ("black sun"). Flocks of anything from five to fifty thousand common starlings form in areas of the UK just before sundown during mid-winter. These flocks are commonly called murmurations.
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The best time for marsh harriers is late April to mid-May. There are good numbers of breeding waders and recent RSPB work has increased the number of pairs of northern lapwings and common redshanks. The site has become well known for murmurations (roosting displays) of starlings in winter. Bitterns were recorded as breeding in 2016.
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Following remixes for Bastille and John Newman, he released the double A-side "Gobble" / "Melisma" through MTA on 16 February 2014. His first charting single, "Way We Are", was released in July 2014 and entered the UK Singles Chart at number 30. His next EP, Murmurations, was released on 5 October 2014 and includes the song "Drop" (premiered by Annie Mac).
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David Bramwell is a British writer, musician, performer and broadcaster. For BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, he has made programmes on diverse subjects, including Ivor Cutler, clapping, time travel, and the murmurations of starlings. He is the founder and host of Brighton's spoken word night, the Catalyst Club. Bramwell is also a singer-songwriter with his band Oddfellow's Casino.
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A large flock in Rotterdam, Netherlands The common starling is a highly gregarious species, especially in autumn and winter. Although flock size is highly variable, huge, noisy flocks - murmurations - may form near roosts. These dense concentrations of birds are thought to be a defence against attacks by birds of prey such as peregrine falcons or Eurasian sparrowhawks.Taylor & Holden (2009) p. 27.
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One of the favorite birds are clouds of starlings when they do their famous murmuration dance. Especially when this group is behind attacked by hawks, as Bou says in an Atlas Obscura article: "I am passionate about the idea of how a sculptor, the hawk, shapes the shapes of starling clouds", he says. With this project Bou created a multimedia project called Murmurations. Most of the images were made in Catalonia or in the area of the Iberian Peninsula.
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There are parallels with the shoaling behavior of fish, the swarming behavior of insects, and herd behavior of land animals. During the winter months, starlings are known for aggregating into huge flocks of hundreds to thousands of individuals, murmurations, which when they take flight altogether, render large displays of intriguing swirling patterns in the skies above observers. Flocking behavior was simulated on a computer in 1987 by Craig Reynolds with his simulation program, Boids. This program simulates simple agents (boids) that are allowed to move according to a set of basic rules.
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Pilkington has also played electronics and synthesisers with improvising and experimental musical groups including Rucksack, Raagnagrok, Disinformation, Urthona, The Stargazer's Assistant, High Mountain Tempel, The Stëllä Märis Drönë Örchësträ, Yan Gant y Tan, Indigo Octagon and solo as The Asterism. He has appeared on two CDs by High Mountain Tempel, The Glass Bead Game and Pilgrimage to Thunderbolt Pagoda, Circuit Blasting by Strange Attractor vs Disinformation and Murmurations by Urthona and the Asterism. In 2012 he appeared in an episode of the second series of Stargazing Live, a BBC 2 series about astronomy.
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Although perhaps most vulnerable when caught unaware while calling atonally on a perch, a few starlings (or various blackbirds) may be caught by red-tails which test the agile, twisting murmurations of birds by flying conspicuously towards the flock, to intentionally disturb them and possibly detect lagging, injured individual birds that can be caught unlike healthy birds. However, this behavior has been implied rather than verified. Over 50 passerine species from various other families beyond corvids, icterids and starlings are included in the red-tailed hawks' prey spectrum but are caught so infrequently as to generally not warrant individual mention.
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