Making Sense of Murmurations
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Category |
Education |
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Start date |
03.02.2024 02:00 PM |
Address / City: |
2655 NW Market Street Seattle |
End date |
03.02.2024 03:00 PM |
Location |
WA, US |
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This public talk with Dr. Natalie Hofmeister will explore how biologists make sense of the murmurations that transform individual starlings into a coordinated whole, and how we identify ourselves in these birds.
When the seasons change, millions of starlings take to the air across the northern hemisphere. It is not the birds migration that captures our attention, but a phenomenon called murmuration, when hypnotic gyres of several thousand birds turn as if one body. This behavior, not the birds discordant song nor its voracious appetite, draws our attention to the common starling. Captivating as it may be, what exactly is a murmuration? Scientists hypothesize that predators shape these swirling masses of birds, or that the birds themselves congregate to keep warm overnight. But for centuries, humans have found their own reflections in this behavior: starlings sometimes signal a divine judgment, and other times an industrious workforce. |
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