Murmurations: the wonders of Brighton’s starlings and threats to their survival, Dr Rachel White and Steve Geliot

In this talk, Dr Rachel White shares the scientific discoveries and stories about Brighton’s ‘star bird’ the starling. She explores starlings from a global perspective, then focuses in on the UK and our very own Brighton starlings – covering their behaviour, ecology, conservation and relationship with people.

Steve Geliot talks about how the murmuration works; the science behind this dazzling phenomenon, and also reveals the starlings’ amazing senses: how they see and feel the world quite differently to us, and why they need to be able to see the stars at night.

Rachel is a Principal Lecturer at the University of Brighton. Her research encompasses avian ecology and conservation, focusing on human-nature interactions, citizen science, and extinction risk.

Steve is an artist and citizen scientist who recently had an exhibition at Phoenix Artspace called “Undercurrents” with fellow artist Louise McCurdy which was all about our fabulous starlings.