Murmuration: caught on camera in Ireland

Attention all quiz buffs: here’s one to remember for your next trivia night – what is the collective noun for a group of starlings? Answer: a murmuration. These terrifically-titled flocks of tiny birds are known for their dazzling aerial displays, and while canoeing on Lough Derg in the Shannon Region, lucky ladies Liberty and Sophie were fortunate enough to capture the event on video.

Their video of Ireland (if you still haven’t seen it – where have you been?), aptly entitled ‘Murmuration’, exploded in popularity on the Internet and went viral within weeks – to date it has had over 7.7 million views!

Watch the film below and the word murmuration will never sound the same to you again.

Murmuration from Islands & Rivers on Vimeo.

We caught up with the girls recently after their video became a internet sensation. Here’s what they had to say:

Sophie filming the starlings

We were art students at the London College of Communication and visited the Shannon Region to make a graduation film for our department. We love Ireland, being in the countryside around the River Shannon was really special – there was different weather everyday we were there, from low-hung mists over Lough Derg, to crisp sunny white-tipped frosty mornings and clear starry nights. The warmth and welcome of the people we met in the local area was wonderful.

We were using a house near Lough Derg as the location for the graduation film. We had brought Sophie’s canoe to use in one of the shots – but we would use it to go out exploring the beautiful Shannon, especially when life on the set got a bit crazy!

The Murmuration DVD

We had no idea that the birds were there – it was real serendipity. As the murmuration swirled around us we were amazed, truly elated, and felt a pure adrenaline rush. It was breathtakingly beautiful, humbling and a highlight of both our lives. To be able to share such an experience has been wonderful.

Afterwards, we uploaded the footage and showed the rest of the crew – the whole room full of people got goosebumps! But we were still totally surprised when the video went viral. We had a few views the first couple of days, on the third day we had twenty or so, then we linked to it on Facebook and it got picked up by some major blogs and online magazines from there. At the moment, we have over 7.7 million views!

We would love to go back to Ireland to make another film – there are so many great places we want to explore and many great stories we hope to tell… join our mailing list to keep in touch with our next projects!

On the Islands & Rivers website you can buy a limited edition ‘Murmuration’ DVD complete with hand-painted sleeves, and you can follow the girls on Facebook and Twitter.

All this talk of ‘swooping birds’ and ‘millions of hits’ got some of you a little inspired at our last competition. We asked for the best videos of Ireland, and said we were willing to swap a luxury holiday in Ireland for two people, for the best video about Ireland.

We asked for ‘the one’ but we got much more than that. Eighty weird and wonderful entries came from around the world. Dancing, diving, laughing, climbing in Ireland. Ireland in the rain, in the sun, in the pub. Dolphins, sheep, deer, ducks; red setters and air guitarists.

There was only one thing for it: a montage. Tourism Ireland set out to reclaim the montage from 80s boxing movies and permed romcoms. We’ve stitched all the videos together to create a tapestry of Ireland, made by the visitors themselves, as a thank you to all the entrants.

It’s Ireland on video, and Ireland on the soundtrack. The sunshine of a backing song ‘This New Country’ comes courtesy of Dublin folk band Cry Monster Cry.