Starling murmurations fascinate car park crowd

Crowds have been flocking to the roof of a shopping centre car park to watch murmurations of starlings.

Thousands of the birds have been returning night after night to the Kingfisher Shopping Centre car park in Redditch since January, and have attracted dozens of birdwatchers.

Justin, who runs the Life through a Lens Warwickshire YouTube page and Facebook group, described the scene as like a massive social gathering for birds.

Starlings are in the red category on the RSPB's conservation status which means their population is in decline.

At the end of their aerial displays, the Redditch starlings plummet from the sky to roost in a series of trees behind the shopping centre car park

Murmurations form over starlings' communal roosting sites

Justin thought the Redditch starlings arrived from a roost at Brandon Marsh, a nature reserve more than 30 miles away in Warwickshire.

"Brandon Marsh this year had the biggest numbers I've seen, it was huge, many more than last season," he said.

But what is the meaning of the murmuration?

"My understanding is it's some sort of massive social gathering for the starlings where they talk about where they've been, where the best food is, is this a good roost site - basically just bird chit chat on a massive scale," he said.

Crowds await the murmuration from the roof of the Kingfisher Shopping Centre car park

The murmuration over the skyline of Redditch

What are murmurations?

• A murmuration is the name for a flying flock of starlings

• During the winter months, large numbers of starlings visit Britain from the continent, seeking out the relative warmth of the UK's climate

• As dusk arrives, the starlings set off for their communal roost

• Flocks arrive from all directions, gathering in the skies above their roost sites

• As the numbers reach into the tens and hundreds of thousands, the murmurations take on incredible shapes in the sky, contracting and expanding as one flock merges into another, and taking on a life of their own; swirling back and forth in ever more complex and beautiful patterns

Information: The Wildlife Trusts