6/19/2006: Sparrow flocks in Denmark

Today's Earth Science Picture of the Day highlights 16 shots of these flocks of European Sparrows in Denmark. I've highlighted only these two so as to claim fair use, or something.

Flocks of millions of these birds make formations... but only during a few weeks of the year, and only a half hour before sunset. So many of the birds are in the sky that, at certain times, they block out the sun... thus the name of the phenomenon: "Black Sun".

Didn't some horror movie have this as a premise? I'm thinking a Vin Diesel vehicle but I could be wrong..."Pitch Black"?

wow...cool. oooh ahhh That beats the humongous dragonflies I saw yesterday. I thought they looked weird. That is just phenominal looking.

It looks amazing! Wow!

I love these shots.

[quote=Undertoad So many of the birds are in the sky that, at certain times, they block out the sun... thus the name of the phenomenon: "Black Sun".
[/QUOTE]
And what do the call the area *beneath* the formations? "White Grass"?

Yikes - searching Google Images for "black sun" denmark is not recommended...

I will not do it. I will not do it. I will not do it.

I've seen London birds flocking in the same way, also just before sunset. The most amazing part was how the entire flock would dive into a tree at full speed and disappear, presumably all perched on twigs. Then 10 seconds later they would all zoom out of the tree at full speed in one mass, do a few crazy high-speed turns still all as one unit, and then dive into another tree at full speed. They repeated this dance over and over, every time with a different route. It was fantastic to watch.

I remember hearing about presentations about how similar phenomenon happened in the US (a long time ago?) with a particular species of bird. But since you could pretty much aim a gun up and shoot to get a free bird dinner, they went extinct.

One can take the same 'Wow' picture and see the arrival of a new black plague - bird flu. Same picture. Different perspective.

It goes both ways. A week or so ago, my son and I were leaning out a window, watching the world go by. I felt a sneeze coming and let it loose just as a bird flew by. I couldn't have timed it better if I tried. He laughed and laughed. A genuine belly laugh. I didn't know 4 year old could laugh that way. I thought it was pretty funny too. I totally nailed that bird with snot.

I think UT's second picture looks like a butterfly net.

And this flock has balls.

Wasn't able to find a pic but here in Vacouver at the begining of dusk you can see a murder of crows about the same width in the sky as shown here but the 'flock' stretches from downtown to the suburb of Burnaby (approx 15 miles). It happens every evening as sort of a mini-migration from the parks and docks to a bird sanctuary. (Located right next to the largest McDonalds in the Lower Mainland!)

Better have an umbrella is all I can say......

I swear this was an IOTD before, or somebody posted it in Quality Images.

Hmm...

It was , but it is STILL a cool pic

There are swifts that live in my parents' country house chimneys that occasionally do stuff like this.

Rorschach test, anyone?

Yes, thats a butterfly......thats a dolphin.....that's a little girl feeding her brothers entrails to the pet wolverine......

No, it looks like the Prophet with a bomb on his head.

not gonna search.... don't wanna know.....

It's performance art, lots of plastic as well, meant to explore the relationship between spider and fly. See, I read the text as well, not just looked at the pictures

Sparrows attack one single tree and almost destroy it

This is one of the top stories on digg right now.

This guy lives right near me although I can't tell exactly where by the identical mcmansions

That is a great example of the Universal Mind at work.

Cool.

Starlings are a lot bigger than sparrows, but still - that's a lot of starlings!

Starlings. Yes.

I wonder if Starlings like Mulberry's?

That is an appetite with wings. The bare trees that would almost certainly make more stable roosts aren't loaded with birds, because there's no food there. I don't know what's in the junipers, but that really looks like group hunger to me.

Juniper berries.

isn't that what they make gin out of?

Dude seems to be very into birding. I don't recognize the neighborhood either, ut, but then again, I don't get out much.

Map to the videographer's house ... can anyone put roads to the image?

People post the dumbest stuff to the internet, because they think they're anonymous.

North Grange.

A-haw-haw-haw.