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How can I not fall in love…
…when I am treated to a spectacle in the sky one late evening, as hundreds of rosy starlings return to their roosting trees. They move in unison, in waves, creating ever-changing patterns in the sky.
Possessed by a restless energy, they move like one big cloud swooping down to the treetops, only to head back skywards, twisting and turning at dizzying speeds and angles!
Hundreds of them flying en masse in perfect synchrony, and yet there are no collisions, no accidents. I wonder how they achieve such precision as I watch this display from a boat at the wetland near Bhigwan, close to Pune.
Starlings migrate in winter and arrive in India in large numbers from Central Asia and Eastern Europe. And every evening they put on this wonderful aerial performance. Why do they do this, expending so much energy at the end of the day? Moving around in such great numbers and in unpredictable ways keeps them safe, perhaps. It would be near impossible for a predator to catch a single starling from a group of hundreds of whirling birds!
I wait till the sun sets and the curtain comes down on their performance. I learn that this behaviour is termed “murmuration”. Call it what you want, the sight would be no less spectacular.
Excerpted with permission from Kalpavriksh (2025). Available for purchase on their website and on Amazon.
