When I lived on a roof in Tel Aviv with my boyfriend Elad more than a decade ago, I would spend some evenings watching the Cypress trees sway and pray in the wind, and above them flocks of starlings painting the sky with their moves like tea leaves in a cup. Without a television it was the perfect form of entertainment. But unless you had your head angled straight up to the sky, you’d miss them.
Earlier this month a large flock of Starlings decided to give a show of a lifetime to a dozen or so families in the Negev Desert, Israel. Birds in the desert are easier to see: As the sun sets the birds in this 8-minute video start to get trickier and trickier with their coordinated air show, or aerial antics. According to Israel Forever this is the first time these Starlings have appeared in the desert for the last 20 years.
“The common starling, first sighted last year at Kibbutz Ein Gev on the eastern shore of the Kinneret, used to fly to Israel from Russia and Eastern Europe until about 20 years ago in mind-boggling flocks numbering some 15 million. But for unknown reasons, the population declined to about a tenth of its former size, and for that reason is no longer seen in Israel.
“But now that their numbers are climbing back, they can now be sighted again in Israel, particularly at dusk when the flocks begin their spectacular aerobatic display before retiring for the night,” the website reports.
Watch the video. It builds to a crescendo by minute 8. They say God is in the details. But obviously, also in the birds.
Author: Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist, innovation strategist, and founder of Green Prophet, one of the Middle East’s pioneering sustainability platforms. She has ranked in the Top 10 of Verizon innovation competitions, participated in NASA-linked challenges, and spoken worldwide on climate, food security, and future resilience. With an IoT technology patent, features in Canada’s National Post, and leadership inside teams building next-generation agricultural and planetary systems — including Mars-farming concepts — Karin operates at the intersection of storytelling, science, and systems change. She doesn’t report on the future – she helps design it. Reach out directly to [email protected]
nice video but what the heck has this got to do with ufos or meteors?