Murmuration of Dunlin (HD)

A murmuration is a shape-shifting cloud formed by a huge flock of birds. In this beautiful video, clouds of dunlin flash between brilliant white and darker colors as they swirl in the morning sun. I filmed them from the Nature Conservancy's protected shoreline estuary on Port Susan Bay, Washington. The huge white birds near the shore are trumpeter swans, and a bald eagle can also be seen swooping in and perching in the midst of the dunlin.
The dunlin is a familiar shorebird around the world. In nonbreeding plumage, as shown in this film, it's drab gray with a brownish head and breast and white underwings that are especially distinctive in flight. As a flock twists and turns together in flight, white flashes of underwing gleam in the sun even from a distance.
Dunlin breed across the northern edges of both North America and Eurasia, and they winter along coasts around the Northern Hemisphere. The dunlin shown in this film, which are spending their winter in Washington State, migrate thousands of miles to breed during summer in the wet coastal tundra.
Please visit my website (www.wildnwbeaut...), my Facebook page ( / wildnorthwestbeauty , and my Instagram (@wildnorthwestbeauty) to see more of my beautiful Pacific Northwest photography.