what birds flock together and swoop like bees ?

[shapley]

Heloooo,
right I have to ask, as I don't know, we live in kent and have a rather large flock of birds that swoop about and sometimes land in trees and make a racket!

I'd guess there may be around 100 plus in the group.

They are fairly small in size, never seem to land on the ground, they have small tails from what I can see, thought they might be swallows, but the tail wasn't right.

they seem to have quite wide wings that bow downwards from the head, they are always on the go and as yet i have been unable to get a pic of them.

anyone got any ideas of what they might be ?

I have never seen anything quite like it.


kind regards

Sarah

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by shapley

Heloooo,
right I have to ask, as I don't know, we live in kent and have a rather large flock of birds that swoop about and sometimes land in trees and make a racket!

I'd guess there may be around 100 plus in the group.

They are fairly small in size, never seem to land on the ground, they have small tails from what I can see, thought they might be swallows, but the tail wasn't right.

they seem to have quite wide wings that bow downwards from the head, they are always on the go and as yet i have been unable to get a pic of them.

anyone got any ideas of what they might be ?

I have never seen anything quite like it.


kind regards

Sarah

Perhaps Starlings? I think there's some photographs of them flying in tight flocks in the Gallery, fairly typical autumn / winter behaviour particularly heading towards late afternoon / dusk

[shapley]

Thanks for that, i have had a look in the Gallery and they do look like those in flight, these lot are about all the time, mostly in the daytime ie the past 5 hours, I know we have a lot of those about, but did not think it would be those, i shall try to get a piccy of em!

cheers

Sarah

[chunkychambers]

Hello Shapley and welcome to WAB.
Without a bit more detail and perhaps a photo, it's a difficult ask but you say about the size of swallows, helluva noisy, and rigid broad wings?

My guess would be the same as Gill, Starlings.

This time of year when they come in to roost they fly in fantastic, ever changing but synchronised clouds. Very impressive

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

Large groups of finches tend to flock together this time of year could be Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Siskin etc

[colinaj]

Starlings! although a Robin stroker rang me last week said he saw a flock of Nutcrackers. he said they were not Starlings cos they called different!

Many Starlings come in from Russia & other cold countries but did you know it is mainly Juvs & females? The Males stay on territory all year.

CJ

[Wild-Woman]

I would say starlings too. If you live near the Isle of Sheppey, the flocks are huge. I have starlings that roost in the trees at the end of the garden. There's at least a hundred. They come in in flights of around 30 in the evening, circle the trees in perfect formation, then descend in one swoop and sit there chattering until one of them calls lights out. Julie

[colinaj]

Originally Posted by Lincs Yellowbelly

Large groups of finches tend to flock together this time of year could be Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Siskin etc

No Way. not huge swooping flocks like Starlings,

Greenfinch flocks normally no 300, but I have never seen them behave like Starlings do, You must have seen the big Roosts in Linc's?

Colin.

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

The original post stated that 100 birds where in the flock, this is normal for finches from my experience

Although reading about the swooping, this does sound like Starling

[werdnal]

If you watch the TV trailers for the new Autumn Watch series, they have footage of starlings going to roost, which should give you an idea whether they match what you saw.

We get the odd small flock here especially when it gets really cold, and they do make a real racket for such small birds!