Otago Daily Times illustrations editor Stephen Jaquiery photographed birds on the power lines at dusk on Monday and at the weekend.
Ms Thompson, of Dunedin, said thousands of birds were coming from ''all parts of town'' before ''forming up'' on the power wires and, as a murmuration (or flock), they undertook flying displays, and then roosted at a nearby big plantation of eucalypts and pine trees.
''We're just lucky we can see the staging point,'' she said.
The birds roosted together in colder months to keep warm, and evergreen trees in the plantation provided more winter protection, she said.
ODT Nature File columnist Anthony Harris said some roosting and flocking behaviour could be seen elsewhere in Dunedin, but the photographs showed ''rare and spectacular'' sights, partly because of the proximity of the plantation roosting area.
''Dramatic pre-roosting acrobatic flight displays are a feature of starlings during winter, when the birds display en masse above the roost,'' he said.
The closely-grouped birds can form a distinct figure, in which the individual birds all appear to move together ... '' he said.
