Has anyone ever seen thousands of birds streaming across the sky?

Question

I woke up early this morning and walked outside around the block. I looked up and I saw literally thousands of birds streaming across the sky from one horizon clear across as far as I could see. They were in almost a defined stripe flying in "step" for lack of a better descriptor. Has anyone ever seen this?

Do any of you know what kind of bird it is? I can not find anything online about it.

Jim. Now that you mention it they were flying in a southerly direction. They were black as best I could tell, but they were also kind of high in the air so it could have been red. Man I hope this is not a sign of things to come. It has been a really cool summer here in Canada and we are way overdue for a harsh winter.

Answer 1

Yes, many times. Common birds that are seen in large numbers are American robin, starlings, grackles, cowbird, blackbirds (several species) in North America. South Florida has massive flocks of the exotic parakeets. At the onset of winter many species mass for the southerly migration.

Answer 2

That's pretty common down here in the US in the fall and winter when the big blackbird flocks (blackbirds and Grackles mostly) form up and head for their roosts. I've usually seen it in the afternoon and evening, but I don't see why it shouldn't happen in the morning when the birds are on the move. That horizon-to-horizon strip of birds is pretty impressive, particularly when they go on for a while, like half an hour or more. Gives us an idea of what it used to be like with Passenger Pigeons 150 years ago. I wouldn't think it would be any of the bigger birds, though - although you may see large flocks of big birds like gulls, hawks, geese and cormorants, they generally fly in masses or formations, not in those never-ending strips.

Answer 3

They were most likely blackbirds and it was probably in the evening. We also get massive flights of seagulls around here, and when a storm is coming off the lake I've seen thousands of cormorants flying into the river. They have huge numbers of hawks in the fall as I'm on a major flyway. They ride the thermals in a column until they are miles high and glide south for the winter.

Answer 4

Yes, i have seen an Arctic Tern Migration
The Siberian Crane to Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary
and the Flamingo in Kutcch... the last two visits were spotted in India
They are beautiful!!!

I wonder why dont we get fed up of looking´'just' at humans when we share the planet with OTHER SUCH BEAUTIFUL CREATURES!!

Selfcentred and preoccupied as we are with ourselves... Do you watch startrek?
In The episode - Far point, Q says that we are juvinile and may be still in infancy when it comes to maturity if humans as a species.
I wonder what would it be like to be mature? I guess he was talking about emotional maturity.

:)

Answer 5

Yes! I was out walking my dog once, our daily walk through the neigborhood, and I noticed some abnormal bird noises [it sounded like a massive amount of birds chirping]. That it was too, I looked up in the trees to find literally every tree plump FULL of black birds. Every couple of minutes a whole flock would abandon their perches and fly to another tree. I must admit it was a bit creepy.

Answer 6

It's pretty awesome. I've lived on opposite US coasts and seen lots of this. It's great to take the time to watch the "mechanism" of them working together. If only humans could do that.

Answer 7

Yes! And I couldn't get up to the top of the tree fast enough!

Answer 8

YES!!









on a video. hehehee

Answer 9

yer it's great