The breathtaking aerial display performed by large flocks of starlings, which move in fluid, shape-shifting clouds across the sky before roosting.

The fluid movement emerges from each bird following simple rules: match the speed of your seven nearest neighbours and avoid collision.

Also used as the collective noun for a group of starlings, alongside the lesser-used alternatives chattering and affliction.

The Latin root murmus means a low continuous sound, and the word was applied to starling flocks by analogy to the soft whirring sound they produce in flight.

The phenomenon was not scientifically explained until 2008, when physicist Andrea Cavagna published the first computer model of starling flocking behaviour using STARFLAG data.