A videographer managed to capture stunning footage of the UK's largest starling murmuration where over 1 million birds twisted and turned through the sky above Glastonbury on February 18.

The filmer, Paul Simon, told Newsflare: "Colder weather in parts of Continental Europe this 2024/25 winter has led to the mass migration of one million starlings to a site in the West Country, a significantly greater number than in recent years, returning to their annual roosting site in the reed beds on the Somerset Levels at RSPB Ham Wall Nature Reserve in Somerset.

"This is the UK's largest starling roost where enormous flocks of birds paint the heavens black with spectacular displays of avian acrobatics deep in the heart of Somerset.

"The birds land on reed beds flattening them in to a platform of thatch where they reside for the night packed in tightly to one another to combat the winter cold, safe from predators in islands of reeds in lakes left by old peat work excavations.

"The birds move each day to new sites in the Nature Reserve to find fresh reeds to roost often morphing in the skies in to bizarre twisted formations when threatened by predators. Restoration works on the Old Peat workings have created a vast nature reserve, home to the Starlings from November to March each year."

The UK's largest gathering of 1 Million Starlings returning to roost in the Avalon Marshes reed beds near Glastonbury in Somerset on 18 February 2025
Colder weather in parts of Continental Europe this 2024/25 winter has led to the mass migration of one million starlings to a site in the West Country, a significantly greater number than in recent years, returning to their annual roosting site in the reed beds on the Somerset Levels at RSPB Ham Wall Nature Reserve in Somerset. This is the UK's largest starling roost where enormous flocks of birds paint the heavens black with spectacular displays of avian acrobatics deep in the heart of Somerset. The birds land on reed beds flattening them in to a platform of thatch where they reside for the night packed in tightly to one another to combat the winter cold, safe from predators in islands of reeds in Lakes left by old peat work excavations. The birds move each day to new sites in the Nature Reserve to find fresh reeds to roost often morphing in the skies in to bizzare twisted formations when threatened by predators. Restoration works on the Old Peat workings have created a vast nature reserve, home to the Starlings from November to March each year.