Murmurations and roosts

9 murmurations and roosts along the East Atlantic Flyway, from Norway to Angola: when each one peaks, where to go on your own, what it costs and what you will hear. Wild animals only, no zoos.

Best time, place by place

Where to go, north to south

• 'Sort sol' — starling murmurations over the Wadden Sea marshesDenmark · Murmuration & roost · peak 1 Sep–20 Oct and 1 Mar–10 AprThe rush of a million wings folding in a single turn, the crackle of the flock settling into the reed, then a vast chattering roost; a raptor strike sends a rippling roar through the whole mass; morning departures leave in waves.
• Starling murmurationsUnited Kingdom · Murmuration & roost · peak 20 Nov–31 JanThe whoosh of tens of thousands of wings turning together, then a huge chattering as they settle into the reeds or under a pier; the dawn explosion out of the roost is even louder.
• Rook & jackdaw winter roostUnited Kingdom · Murmuration & roost · peak 1 Dec–31 JanTens of thousands of corvids arriving in waves, calling in a rising roar, then a sudden collective drop into the wood.
• Starling murmurations in RomeItaly · Murmuration & roost · peak 1 Dec–31 JanMillions of starlings wheeling over the Tiber and EUR, then a massive chattering roar in the city trees against traffic and bells.
• Saloum Delta — tern roosts, mangrove herons and wintering wadersSenegal · Murmuration & roost · peak 15 Nov–28 FebThousands of terns and waders on the sandbars of the Saloum mouth, the click and hiss of mangrove at low tide (mudskippers, fiddler crabs, snapping shrimp with a hydrophone), goliath heron's bark, and pied kingfishers everywhere.
• Kousmar — the world's largest lesser kestrel and scissor-tailed kite roostSenegal · Murmuration & roost · peak 1 Dec–15 FebTens of thousands of small falcons and kites settling into a few hectares of acacias with a continuous chittering and the rush of wings, then a night of restless calling; the Saloum's mangroves and the town's calls to prayer behind.
• Hooded vultures of the Kombo coast — Africa's densest population at the fish beaches and abattoirsThe Gambia · Murmuration & roost · peak 1 Nov–28 FebMostly silent birds in enormous numbers: the hiss and thin squealing at a carcass or fish-gut pile, the clatter of 200 pairs of wings lifting at once when a dog runs through, the thud of landings in the kapok roost at dusk. The real soundscape is the fish beach itself — pirogue crews, drying racks, gulls, kites and the vultures' shuffle. A phenomenon that no longer exists anywhere else in the species' range.
• Marshall and Mesurado wetlands — Monrovia's mangrove roostsLiberia · Murmuration & roost · peak 1 Nov–28 FebThousands of egrets and herons settling into mangrove roosts on the edge of the capital, waders on the Marshall bar, mangrove crackle, and from the Farmington river islands the pant-hoots of the rescued chimpanzee colonies at dusk.
• The Afi Mountain barn swallow roostNigeria · Murmuration & roost · peak 1 Dec–28 FebA rising hiss of millions of wings and contact calls as the swallows swirl and drop into the grass on the mountain's western slopes, falcons stooping through the flock, and then the extraordinary, very quiet murmur of a settled roost after dark.

More: every animal and kind · what is on in October