Amazing pre-murmuration display captured on film

A swarm of starlings have been filmed swirling just above the ground in a murmuration-like display.

The phenomena was recorded near Ashcott on the Somerset Levels last week and has been viewed by tens of thousands of people on social media.

It caught lots of attention because it shows a particularly dense cloud of the birds flying very close to the ground.

Ecologist Mike Dilger explained that the footage captured the birds snacking on worms and beetles ahead of a murmuration before nightfall.

'Just as impressive'

"It's probably about a tenth of the entire population," he said.

"Particularly towards the north of Shapwick National Nature Reserve and Ham Wall, is where they tend to accumulate.

"So what they're doing is they're assembling there before they go in to their roost and then they do their big murmuration. We call them pre-roost assemblies."

Mr Dilger told BBC Radio Somerset the footage looks like a murmuration because there are just so many birds.

"It's around 50,000 birds there.

"Seeing that kind of movement of the pre-roost assembly to the main murmuration is in many ways just as impressive.

The sight of hundreds of starlings swooping and diving in unison at dusk is described by scientists as one of the wonders of nature.

The birds gather and fly together making shape-shifting clouds, known as murmurations.

The ecologist said the starling murmuration on the Somerset Levels is the largest is North Western Europe.