Caught On Camera: Gluttonous Gull Eats Helpless Starling Whole

“Vicious beyond belief”: The poor starling didn’t stand a chance (Caters)

A greedy seagull has been caught on camera swallowing a helpless starling in one hungry mouthful.

The tragic bird was returning to her chicks when the gull saw its chance, tearing at her with its beak before guzzling her down.

Dougie McColl, 51, watched the horrifying scenes unfold from his doorstep, as the oblivious starling returned to the nest it had built on his neighbour’s roof.

Down the hatch: the greedy gull had been lying in wait for its prey (Caters)

Dougie, from Barrhead, Glasgow, said: “My roof has turned into the killing fields.

"The poor starling chicks were forced to look on as the gull ate their mother in front of them, repeatedly smashing the poor bird’s body against the roof tiles to break its bones before gulping it down.

"The gull hangs out at the back of our house all the time and is pretty formidable. I would have said it was as large as an eagle, it had a wing-span of over a metre.

"I saw the starling come with straw from the field next to my house.

"The gull was successful in grabbing it on this occasion as it got back to the nest, due to poor visibility and rain.

"This one gull stays close to the nests that the starlings build as it is easy to feed on the unaware parents and chicks and then takes the scraps it requires.

"I watched from the back door of my house as the gull repeatedly battered the starling on the roof tiles of the house opposite me.

"The starlings build their nests on a specific point of the roofs in our area and only the other day I could hear another commotion. There was all sorts of hell going on outside.”

Dougie McColl’s garden affords him a view of “the killing fields” (Caters)

The gull is in fact of a lesser black-backed variety - but seagull is what they are commonly known as.

Dougie explains: “This species is more dangerous, they are absolutely vicious beyond belief.

"The way they do it is they watch other animals prey on something before they copy the behaviour. It’s very clever, actually.”

Dougie and his wife Julie have lived in Barrhead for a decade, but it is only since moving to their current house that they have begun to experience the gulls’ vicious behaviour.

Dougie said: “It didn’t happen in our old house, it was the crows before.

"There is a lot of them and it looks like they are carrying out a bit of a humane cull.”