Things posted about murmuration

Murmuration from Jan van IJken’s “The Art of Flying”

“The art of flying is a short film about “murmurations”: the mysterious flights of the Common Starling. It is still unknown how the thousands of birds are able to fly in such dense swarms without colliding. Every night the starlings gather at dusk to perform their stunning air show. Because of the relatively warm winter of 2014/2015, the starlings stayed in the Netherlands instead of migrating southwards. This gave filmmaker Jan van IJken the opportunity to film one of the most spectacular and amazing natural phenomena on earth.”

A bird ballet

A bird ballet | Music Video from Neels CASTILLON on Vimeo.

We were shooting for a commercial with my DP waiting for an helicopter flying into the sunset, when thousands and thousands of birds came and made this incredible dance in the sky. It was amazing, we just forgot our job and started this little piece of poetry… Enjoy !

Thanks to the birds…
And thanks to Ariane Cornic (Masterfilms) and Philippe Pangrazzi who let us shoot during our working time.

Please watch it in HD or download it in best quality (if you have a vimeo account)

Made by: Neels CASTILLON
DP: Mathias Touzeris
Music: Hand-made – Alt J / Buy on iTunes here: http://smarturl.it/AnAwesomeWave
Location: Marseille, France

PS: Now I know it's called a murmuration and the birds are Starlings.
BBC Nature says "starlings are known for these wonderful swirling aerial displays, done at dusk as they get ready to roost for the winter."