Tens of thousands of starlings form amazing animal shapes of a whale, a bird and a rabbit as they swoop across the sky.

The huge group, known as a murmuration, were captured on camera as they soared above the village of Wall in Northumberland.

Julie Collister, 63, filmed the natural phenomenon as she and husband Paul, 64, drove home from a weekend hiking.

The gran, from Harbottle, Northumberland, said: “We were on our way home from the Lake District when suddenly the sky darkened overhead.

“We got out the car and the whole sky was filled with birds. We assume they were starlings.

“I grabbed my phone and started filming. It went on for ages and was just mesmerising to watch.

“The shapes they formed were amazing. We spotted two whale shapes and what looked like a dog or a rabbit and a giant bird shape.

“When I got home I posted the video on Facebook and loads of people started commenting, saying how incredible it was to see.

“I’ve seen murmurations before but never like this.”

Since uploading the footage on social media, Julie’s footage has been seen, viewed and shared tens of thousands of times.