The Lippard Blog has posted an incredible video of a starling flock (Sturnus vlgaris) in flight. In the video, originally posted over at Rocketboom, a family watches and records as hundreds of the birds take flight, and then repeatedly descend on a poor little cedar tree that bends under their weight. It's actually quite a beautiful clip to watch, and I got a laugh out of the videographer's comment about the scientific name of the starling.
Tip of the virtual hat to Pharyngula for posting a link to the video (worth clicking through just to read the reader comments).
2 comments:
Re the starling species name, back in 1986 I was visiting the cactus and succulent garden at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. There was an obvious gap in a row planting of young succulents which was nevertheless labeled. Upon looking closely at the label, I read "Thief vulgaris."
You gotta love taxonomy geeks :-)
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