How strange is this??????

I was just outside on one of my many cig breaks at work, and it is almost 3 am and a HUGE flock of birds just came flying over! Now, I have seen birds fly together in large groups like this, that isn't strange, but at 3 in the morining????? Has anyone else ever seen this happen? Why would they all be flying together at night time?

Depends. Could you identify the birds? (My guess would be no - seeing that it was night time.) Which area do you live in?

reply to post by Gemwolf


I live in Northwestern Ga, and the birds were flying to high for me to see any color or size, but there were so many of them, it was loud, that is what caught my attention first, and even though it is cloudy I could see the flock as it went over.

Originally posted by space cadet
I was just outside on one of my many cig breaks at work, and it is almost 3 am and a HUGE flock of birds just came flying over! Now, I have seen birds fly together in large groups like this, that isn't strange, but at 3 in the morining????? Has anyone else ever seen this happen? Why would they all be flying together at night time?

Yeah ive seen them before.At silly hours like that.I don't know what the heck they are doing up at that hour Some flocks of Loons making loud barking chirping sounds at 4am flying to somewhere.Some kinds of water fowl.
I wonder where exactly it is they are going and why they chose to go there at 4am.
One possibility is they were disturbed by some kind of predator.Like they were nesting in the weeds sleeping, and some cats or dogs or some kind of creature was hunting them.So they all fly off in panic mode to find another body of water.
Because there is no nocturnal birds that fly in flocks only predator birds of prey who live solitary lifestyles.
So it would seem logical that they were sent packing by some other nocturnal hunting animal.

reply to post by Being_From_Earth


That certainly is an applicable theory, a flight of fright. I think it is odd that I have never witnessed this before, only in daylight.

The obvious response would of course be a colony of Bats... There are plenty of caves in NW Georgia, which goes hand in hand with plenty of bats. There are at least sixteen species of bats in Georgia alone. The dead giveaway with bats is of course the high-pitched squeaks. Did you hear any sounds?

Let's see some alternatives:
Nocturnal Bird Migration is not unknown behaviour - although not studied as much. I know of at least two species - Common Yellowthroat and Savannah Sparrow - that migrates in/around that area. That said - it would be a strange time of the year for birds to be migrating. It's usually in Spring/Fall...?

I'm afraid that's all I know about birdlife in Georgia.

Oh, and Being_From_Earth could be absolutely right as well. A colony/flock of birds could have been disturbed by a predator.


[edit on 4-7-2008 by Gemwolf]

There's a huge rookery where I live, and it's not unknown for them to flock at night - thousands of them, and they make a real racket.

reply to post by Gemwolf


Gemwolf, I acually heard more than I saw, and what I heard was what sounded like a million birds flapping their wings at the same time, it was pretty loud. I suppose this could have easily been bats, rather than birds.

Hi Space Cadet,

it's a puzzling one for sure. It might be worth checking on an ornithological/bird watchers' website for your part of the US and see if they have anything there by way of explanation -- or at least information.

I have seen flocks of birds at night but they were migrating; over here in central Europe the key times for this are late autumn, with them returning around March -- early April, depending on what they sense about the suitability of the weather. This year and last a lot of birds seemed to return earlier than normal but we had very much milder winters than in past years. Beats me how they know it's okay to come back and they'll have food available, but they do. (I know that might seem slightly off topic but it's kind of related to the subject of odd behaviour by our flying friends.)

Mike

Also I think this is something we have to add to our thread with Kat. I might have missed this, you said you live Northwest, Georgia did you mention in which direction they were flocking.

This might be something we can add to our earthquake watch.....which way animals, etc. are moving.

HI, It is strange...and I just watched a video on Yahoo a few days ago and I am trying to find some thing about it now....that is how I found this site...it showed a huge flock of sparrows being taped as they made this weird site in the sky...they twisted and turned and it was like this big black monster...and it was getting near night as well....if anyone else seen the video can you reply. It was on Yahoo and I thought for sure it would still be somewhere beings it was a much watched story...it was around Thursday or Friday of last week....and yes, it is very strange how birds are behaving from all the things I have been reading lately....very scary. Thank you