Do Starlings only display at certain times of the year?

[tuckmeister]

Just watched a beautiful and hypnotic display of Starling's over Dukes lake by Wolvercote, Oxford. Do they do this all year round or only at certain times. If so why?

[Picidae]

Starlings breed and feed in small flocks but during the winter come together in what are sometimes extraordinary sized flocks. They start to flock post-breeding, with juveniles and continental influxes joining them for the winter months.

In the winter, Starlings form large roosts for several reasons but primarily to keep warm, keep safe from predators, and it is thought, to exchange up to date information on food availability. The fantastic displays (murmuration) associated with a Starling winter roost starts about an hour to sundown and sends a signal far and wide for the daytime flocks to finish feeding and come gather for the nightime roost. The displays pinpoint the roost location for any joining Starling as well as indicate the time for gathering. (The fact they don't display in the morning supports this idea that the murmuration display has a signalling significance to Starlings who may be daytime feeding up to 20 K away) If you watch this over time, you will see the murmuration is formed of smaller daytime feeding flocks gradually joining together from all different locations until they are all in one large flock over the roost vicinity. They will then go down for the night to roost. By mid March, the winter roosts have broken up, the migrants returned to their breeding grounds and the resident Starling down to small breeding flocks.

One of the most fantastic spectacles in British wildlife although sadly the size of the winter starling roosts have declined along with the species over the years but we still get roosts upto 5-8 million which peak usually around February. The Brighton/West Pier winter roost numbers about 45-50,000, but very much down from it's original size 30 years ago of 120,000.

Somerset (Westhay Moor), Gloucs, Wilts, Old Avon area, all have traditional large starling roosts.