Sort Sol
Starling murmurations in AR
0,99 USD · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
Tens of thousands of starlings, computed in real time in your own sky. Send the eagle hunting and watch the waves roll — then follow the flock into the reeds at dusk.
Sort Sol — "black sun" — is one of northern Europe's great natural spectacles: tens of thousands of starlings gathering over the Danish Wadden Sea each spring and autumn, dancing across the evening sky in rolling black bands.
This app simulates it. There is no video in here — the flock is computed while you watch, thirty times a second, bird by bird.
IN YOUR OWN SKY
Point the phone up, tap, and the flock is standing in your own view. The sun's position is worked out from the time and the place you're in, so the light on the wings matches the evening you're actually standing in. You can also watch it without the camera, against the app's own dusk sky.
NO BIRD IS STEERING
Each bird watches its seven nearest neighbours and matches them. That's all. The bands, the waves, the sharp edge and the sudden turns emerge on their own once tens of thousands do it at once — exactly as they do over the marsh. It never looks the same twice.
THE EAGLE
Send the white-tailed eagle hunting and panic spreads through the flock as a wave. A hole opens around it, the flock compresses and stretches — and afterwards slowly finds its shape again.
DUSK
Send the flock down into the reed bed for the night and watch it draw together into a spiralling funnel. Call it back up whenever you like.
RECORD AND SHARE
Capture fifteen seconds of your own black sun, save it to Photos, and share it.
SOUND
The chatter of the roost, if you want it. It respects the silent switch and mixes with whatever you're already playing.
TURN THE DIALS
Flock size, flight speed, cohesion, restlessness, wind, the eagle's reach, the shape of the reed bed. Adjust all of it — or none of it. One tap puts everything back to our own Sort Sol.
No account, no sign-in, no data leaving the phone. The camera and your location are used only to show the flock and to work out the sunlight.
AR mode requires a camera and an ARKit-capable device.
Photos by James Wainscoat on Unsplash
Image by AvnesZ on Pixabay
Ratings & Reviews
- This app has not received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
The white-tailed eagle hunts like a real raptor
• It stoops through the flock, climbs away and returns from a new angle – never twice from the same side.
• It picks out one starling in the densest part of the flock, so you can see every attack.
• The starlings see it coming: the flock opens and splits around the dive, and birds above and below scatter in opposite directions.
• Birds bank away from the eagle and pass the movement on, so the alarm ripples out through the flock.
The developer, Bo Kalvslund, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Provider
- Bo Kalvslund
- Size
- 10.3 MB
- Category
- Entertainment
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 18.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 18.0 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 18.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 15.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 2.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
English and 3 more
- English, Danish, Dutch, German
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Copyright
- © Bo Kalvslund
