THE MURMURATIONS OF EUROPEAN STARLINGS; AN ANTI-PREDATOR STRATEGY AND A HISTORICAL MISNOMER

Abstract

I report on the predatory interaction of Peregrine Falcons and flocks of European Starlings in British Columbia, and I review the literature of raptors hunting starlings at their roost sites in Europe. A video analysis of peregrines attacking roosting flocks of starlings over Rome is compared to my long-term observations of peregrines hunting passerines and sandpipers in Canada. The results suggest that the starling murmurations are an anti-predator strategy. My observations, and a review of historical notes in the Oxford English Dictionary, show that the term murmuration was originally inspired by the chorus song of breeding starlings and that today's common use of that term to describe their roost site flights is a misnomer.