Flocks of starlings, like clouds, can form some interesting and sometimes seemingly familiar patterns; what shapes do you see in these murmurations?
Mushroom? (credit: Tim Graham / Getty Images)
An easy one to start! This murmuration, taken at Avalon Marshes on the Somerset levels, looks a lot like a mushroom to us.
This murmuration was taken in December 2012 in Gretna Green, Scotland. We think it looks a bit like a snail with a conical shell.
This large flock of starlings are being harassed by a bird of prey at sunset. We think it looks like a seal; look closely and you might be able to make out the shape of a flipper.
A huge flock at a roosting site by a motorway in southern Scotland. Does anyone else see the resemblance to a jumbo jet taking to the skies or an old fashioned airship?
This is an interesting one with different people seeing different things! Is it a turning dolphin or a seahorse? Or possibly something else entirely!
We’re back to the Somerset Levels for this one. We reckon it looks like a slippery snake slithering away from us.
Is it stretching the imagination too much to see a pouncing mammal with a long tail, such as a stoat or a ferret, in this murmuration? It was taken in Gloucestershire as the starlings were coming to roost one evening.
Looming large in the evening sky of Cambridgeshire, this ‘dinosaur’ was captured at sunset.
Find out more about the starling murmuration with the RSPB, and where to visit if you’d like to experience this spectacle for yourself.
Do you have any pictures of flocking birds making shapes? If so we’d love you to submit them to the Autumnwatch Flickr strand and don’t forget to tell us what shape you think they make.