Burscough, Southport, Lancashire, UK 7th November, 2015. Starling Mumuration at Dusk. WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre has seen the return of approximately 15,000 starlings at the Centre. The birds disperse during the day but return to the Centre from 4pm onwards everyday with a fantastic ten minute spectacle, creating shapes in the sky as they prepare to roost for the evening.
A murmuration of starlings is an amazing sight - a swooping mass of thousands of birds whirling in the sky above your head. What's going on? It's basically a mass aerial stunt - thousands of birds all swooping and diving in unison. It's completely breathtaking to witness. We think that 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. They gather over their roosting site, and perform their wheeling stunts before they roost for the night.
Size: 3850px × 2239px
Location: Burscough, Lancashire, UK
Photo credit: © MediaWorldImages / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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