By James Cutmore

Published: Wednesday, 13 April 2022 at 12:00 am

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Black Sun is a project by acclaimed Danish photographer Søren Solkær, and captures one of nature’s most spectacular wonders.

Solkær is mostly known for his years of photographing the biggest icons within the music, film and art industries. However, over the last few years he has also been working on something very close to his heart.

Growing up in marshlands of South Denmark, Solkær was always inspired by the landscape and the wildlife he saw there. Since 2017, Solkær has been working on a new project; documenting the vast murmurations of starlings across Europe.

Starlings tend to migrate to warmer places during the winter, which can cause a growth in the local population. When these numbers swell, the likelihood of a murmuration is increased. There is no definitive answer as to why these murmurations occur, but the results can be spectacular, often featuring well over one million birds.

“The starlings move as one unified organism that vigorously opposes any outside threat,” Solkær says. “A strong visual expression is created – like that of an ink drawing.”

We have brought together some amazing images from the Black Sun exhibition, which can be seen in a number of galleries and museums worldwide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More great images from BBC Science Focus:

• Inside the construction of the world’s largest tokamak
• The best images in science March 2022
• Up close and personal with octopuses, seahorses and jellyfish

 

 

 

 

 

Read more about birds:

• The top ten largest birds in the world
• The bizarre link between bird migration and quantum physics

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