����ý

It's not often you look at a group of birds and think they look like something straight out of the ocean.

But thousands of starlings in Lancashire did exactly that - they were spotted swirling together in the sky in the shape of a huge whale!

The breathtaking photos were taken by a birdwatcher called David Cousins at the Leighton Moss nature reserve near the Lancashire village of Silverdale, and he said he was "delighted" to have been able to capture them.

He followed the flock's movements over the winter months, until he was able to get the stunning photographs.

A big group of starlings like this is called a murmuration and they "perform aerial acrobatics" to confuse predators and to keep warm in the colder weather, bird protection charity the RSPB explained.

But it's quite rare to see a flock this large. In fact, they're currently on the RSPB red list of endangered birds.