Where to see starling murmurations in the UK this winter

When is murmuration season?

The RSPB says murmurations start to form in November and can carry on through to February. Some Wildlife Trusts give a wider window, October to March, and the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust says November to January is best. At Brighton, the pier's own advice is November to late February.

The reason is winter visitors. Starlings live in the UK all year, but their numbers swell in winter when birds arrive from Scandinavia and the rest of northern Europe. The Natural History Museum says they come in September and October and leave again in February and March. The biggest roosts are in the months when they're all here.

What time should you get there?

Arrive about an hour before sunset. That's the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust's advice, and it matches everyone else's: the display happens at dusk, just before the birds settle in the roost for the night.

Small groups arrive first, then bigger ones, and the flock grows as the light goes. Don't leave when you think it's over. The best of it is often right at the end, in the last of the light, just before the whole lot pours down into the reeds or under the pier.

No two evenings are the same. Some nights the birds put on a long show. Other nights they go almost straight in. If it's a quiet one, go back another evening.

Where to see starling murmurations in the UK

Roosts move. A reedbed that held thousands last winter might be quiet this year, so check recent sightings before a long trip (there's more on that below). These are places that conservation bodies and councils point people to.

South of England

• Brighton, East Sussex. Brighton & Hove City Council says hundreds of thousands of starlings come in to roost on the piers on most winter evenings. Watch from the seafront between the piers or from Brighton Palace Pier. On a calm night you can hear their wings.
• The Somerset Levels. The Avalon Marshes, including RSPB Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath, are one of the best-known roosts in the country. Ring the reserve or check its updates for where the birds are this year.
• Blashford Lakes, Hampshire, and the Exe Reedbeds, Devon, both on the Wildlife Trusts' list.

East of England

• Fen Drayton, Cambridgeshire, and Minsmere, Suffolk, both named by the Woodland Trust.

Wales

• Aberystwyth Pier, Ceredigion. People gather on the pier on winter evenings to watch the starlings come in.
• RSPB Newport Wetlands. The RSPB describes tens of thousands of starlings over the reedbeds.
• Teifi Marshes, Pembrokeshire, on the Wildlife Trusts' list.

The Midlands and the north of England

• Leighton Moss, Lancashire, an RSPB reserve.
• Brockholes near Preston, Lunt Meadows in Merseyside and Wigan Flashes, all recommended by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust.
• Blackpool, where the Natural History Museum points to the North Pier.
• Attenborough and Idle Valley, Nottinghamshire, from the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.
• Brandon Marsh in Warwickshire, Potteric Carr in Yorkshire and Far Ings in Lincolnshire, all Wildlife Trust reserves.

Scotland

• RSPB Mersehead, Dumfries and Galloway, where starlings murmurate over the reedbed in winter before they roost. The Gretna area nearby has long been known for murmurations too, but the roost there moves about, so check before you go.

Northern Ireland

• Albert Bridge, Belfast. This one has a story. After new LED lights went up, the Ulster Museum says the murmuration fell from thousands of birds to a few dozen in the winter of 2020 to 2021. Shields were fitted to the lights in autumn 2023, and that November thousands of starlings came back to the bridge.

How to find a murmuration near you

The RSPB's advice is to check before you set out. Social media is good for this, and so is Starlings in the UK, a volunteer-run map where people report roosts. Local reserves usually post when their starlings are in.

You can also go looking. In late afternoon in winter, watch for small flocks of starlings all heading the same way. Follow the direction and you may find a roost nobody's put on a map.

Why do starlings murmurate?

The best answer comes from a citizen science study published in PLOS ONE in 2017, run by the University of Gloucestershire with the Royal Society of Biology. People sent in 3,211 records over two winters. The researchers concluded that murmurations are mainly about avoiding predators, not about drawing in more birds to keep a roost warm. Birds of prey were seen at 29.6% of the murmurations. Sparrowhawks and peregrines both hunt starlings as they come in to roost.

That fits what you see. When a hawk goes in, the flock tightens and ripples away from it, and it's hard for a predator to pick out one bird in a moving cloud of thousands. The RSPB also lists warmth and sharing information about good feeding places as reasons starlings roost together. Those explain the roost. The study suggests the swirling is mostly about the hawks.

How many starlings are in a murmuration?

In the same study the average murmuration was about 30,000 birds, and the largest was around 750,000. The BTO says some winter roosts hold more than a million.

Watching and photographing one

Wrap up warm and take a flask. Get there early so you're settled before the birds come in, stay put, and keep your voice down as they start to drop to the roost. At piers and reserves, stay on the paths and follow the site's own signs.

If you want photographs, Amateur Photographer's advice is a good start:

• A shutter speed of 1/125 to 1/250 sec keeps the flock sharp. Go to 1/50 sec or slower if you want the swirl to blur.
• Use burst mode and focus on where the flock is going to be, not where it is.
• Don't pack up early. The activity builds as dusk comes on.

Are starlings in decline?

Yes. The BTO says the UK's breeding starlings fell by 61% between 1995 and 2024, to about 1.8 million pairs, and starlings are on the Red List of birds of high conservation concern. A sky full of them makes starlings look common. The numbers say otherwise.