Actually, it’s called a murmuration of starlings. Possibly, as Dylan Winter, the narrator of this amazing clip notes, because of the murmuring of wings.

Whatever the source of the name, the actual sight — even reduced to the size of a computer screen — is breathtaking. Starlings — those blackish birds most of us shoo from feeders — create magic in the fading sky of twilight.

I think that’s one reason it seems so magical to me: starlings aren’t ‘special’ birds. People don’t fly to Alaska to add starlings to their bird list. But this? I would fly to see this, believe me. Somehow, the idea that ‘ordinary’ starlings can produce such beauty is comforting. If starlings, why not us? Why not you and me?