A stunning picture of a murmuration of starlings taken by our photographer James Bass this week, capturing a beautiful evening sky over Great Yarmouth.
The murmuration of starlings every evening and centred over St George’s Park is an amazing sight - a swooping mass of thousands of birds whirling in the sky.
According to the RSPB the murmuration is basically a mass aerial stunt - thousands of birds all swooping and diving in unison. It’s completely breathtaking to witness.
We think starlings do it for many reasons. Grouping together offers safety in numbers – predators such as peregrine falcons find it hard to target one bird in the middle of a hypnotising flock of thousands.
They also gather to keep warm at night and to exchange information, such as good feeding areas, and over their roosting site, performing their wheeling stunts before they roost for the night.
Their human neighbours say they can hear the leaves rustling through the night – perhaps our feathered friends are jostling for space to sleep.
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