Photo of the month

by Jo Hackman

The humble starling, or Sturnus vulgaris, shows its often hidden beauty in our photo of the month taken by well known South Molton photographer Jo Hackman.

Although a common garden bird, it’s actually now on the ‘red list’ for conservation in the UK having seen a shocking 50% decline in its breeding population in the last 25 years.

“I love watching these in the garden, they stick together but can really squabble, just like some families!” said Jo.

The starling is perhaps best known for its murmurations - basically a mass aerial stunt with thousands of birds all swooping and diving in unison. It’s completely breathtaking to witness.

It’s thought they 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 flock together over their roosting site, and perform their wheeling stunts before they roost for the night.

You can follow Jo Hackman’s photography on Instagram and Facebook, and buy limited edition prints of her work online.

Whether it’s wildlife like this, a landscape, sports, special events, rural life, a local character or something else; please keep emailing us your pictures. We usually only feature one each month in the magazine, but show more on our Instagram and Facebook pages:

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