Rare moment thousands of starlings surround car in Somerset
An ecologist was left stunned after his car was enveloped by thousands of birds on the Somerset levels.
Jamie Kingscott said he had to stop his car while "several thousand starlings crossed the road."
He described the murmuration as an "upshot of living on the Somerset levels in winter."
Jamie tried to take a video but the one photo is all he managed to get.
It has since been seen by thousands around the world.
According the the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, a murmuration is "a mass aerial stunt when thousands of birds all swooping and diving in unison."
On the wildlife charity's website, it says: "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."
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