Table 1.
The number of records submitted and the numbers used in analyses after filtering.
Fig 1.
Reported starling murmurations: (a) = international distribution (; (b) UK basic distribution; (c) = UK distribution showing number of records; (d) = UK distribution showing mean size of murmuration. All base maps from Natural Earth (freely available in the Public Domain); all starling data from Starling Survey run by authors and freely available–see Data Availability Statement. Maps created using QGIS under CC BY.
Fig 2.
Number of murmurations associated with different landscapes (terrestrial, anthropogenic, aquatic) and different habitats with those landscapes based on data from survey year one (2014/15); n = 1,293.
Fig 3.
Temporal patterns in: (a) number of murmurations (n = 1,644); (b) mean number of birds per confirmed murmuration (n = 1,293); and (c) mean duration of murmuration only including records where the end of the murmuration event was recorded (n = 553). All data based on data from survey year one (2014/15); more details on sample sizes are given in Table 1. Dotted lines show annual means. Error bars show standard error.
Fig 4.
Relationship between murmuration duration (weekly mean duration in minutes) and day length in 2014/15 based on records where the end of the murmuration event was recorded (N = 553).
Fig 5.
Number of murmurations associated with potential predators based on data from survey year two (2015/16); n = 1,134.
Table 2.
Hierarchical regression models to explain murmuration size (number of birds) and murmuration duration (minutes) based on either temperature and predator presence or temperature and predator activity (perching silent, perching calling, flying, interacting with flock).
In all cases, three models were created: (1) Minimum Adequate Model (MAM)–the most parsimonious model (i.e. the model that had fewest predictors whilst still attaining ΔAIC < 2); (2) Optimal—the model that best balanced the number of variables and explanatory power (i.e. ΔAIC = 0); and (3) Maximum—the model that increased adjusted R2 to the maximum possible within the ΔAIC < 2 limit. See methods for more details.