Starlings in shape of whale captured on camera in Lancashire
- Published
- comments
These starlings look like they've come straight out of the sea!
It's not often you look at a group of birds and think they look like something straight out of the ocean.
But thousands of starlings in Lancashire did exactly that - they were spotted swirling together in the sky in the shape of a huge whale!
The breathtaking photos were taken by a birdwatcher called David Cousins at the Leighton Moss nature reserve near the Lancashire village of Silverdale, and he said he was "delighted" to have been able to capture them.
He followed the flock's movements over the winter months, until he was able to get the stunning photographs.
The birds are incredibly sociable
A big group of starlings like this is called a murmuration and they "perform aerial acrobatics" to confuse predators and to keep warm in the colder weather, bird protection charity the RSPB explained.
But it's quite rare to see a flock this large. In fact, they're currently on the RSPB red list of endangered birds.
The scientific name for starling is sturnus vulgaris
While they appear black at a distance, close up they have glossy green and purple shiny feathers
They're incredibly noisy - you'll know when a flock of them is near!
They're very sociable too, choosing to spend most of the year in big groups called murmurations
They live on a diet of fruit and insects - yum!
- Published28 February 2022
- Published28 January 2022
- Published12 May 2021
