Have you been lucky enough to see a starling murmuration in Donegal?

Starling murmurations are without doubt one of the most wondrous sights from the natural world, and will stop most of us in our tracks if we are lucky enough to see one happening.

Bird Watch Ireland is calling on people in Donegal to go a step further, and to let them know if they witness a murmuration.

According to BirdWatch Ireland: "Ireland hosts hundreds of thousands of Starlings from numerous countries all over northern Europe each winter, and every evening they group together and perform mesmerising murmurations before settling down to roost together for the night.

"Wherever you are in Ireland, keep an eye on the sky from around an hour before sunset and you'll likely see groups of Starlings all flying in the same direction - to a local lake to roost in the reedbeds on the lake fringes, or maybe to an area of forestry to roost in the trees.

"If you see a Starling murmuration, please let us know."

True Murmuration

"Note that a true murmuration at a roost happens at the place the Starlings will be spending the night, so large numbers of Starlings flying over somewhere, on their way to the roost, don't count!

"Similarly, we want to know about evening roost locations where these murmurations happen, so we don't need records of large numbers of Starlings feeding during the day."

Anyone wishing to log a murmuration can do so here

People are asked to enter their name, location name and a rough estimate of the number of Starlings seen. A rough estimate is fine - was it 1,000, 10,000 or 30,000?). Anyone submitting a record is also asked to mark the precise location of the flock within the site on the map which is with the submission form.

BirdWatch Ireland welcomes repeat records from the same location at different times during the winter.

The Starling Murmuration Survey is a part of BirdWatch Ireland's Birds Connect project, funded and in partnership with the Community Foundation for Ireland.