This is the moment a predatory seagull smashed a tiny starling on roof tiles before swallowing it whole in a horrifying cannibal attack.

The bird was seen swooping in on the smaller creature which had built a nest for its chicks on a rooftop in Barrhead, Glasgow.

Smashing it against the tiles, the gull tossed it up by its legs before swallowing it whole in front of its young.

Scroll down for video

This is the gruesome moment a sea gull was spotted swallowing a starling whole after attacking it on a roof

The gruesome encounter was captured by Dougie McColl who said the predator was 'as large as an eagle'.

'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,' said Mr McColl.

'The gull hangs out the back of our house all the time is pretty formidable. It stays close to the nests that the starlings build as its easy to feed on the unaware parents and chicks and then take the scraps it requIres.'

The gull launched its beak towards the starling from behind while it tended to a nest it had built on the roof

The predatory gull picked up the smaller starling with its beak before bashing it against the roof to break its bones

The starling was seen crying out for its young while it was being savagely beaten by the gull on the roof

He added there were more birds behaving in the same way near their home despite never having seen the creatures act so viciously before.

'To be honest, there is a lot of them and it looks like they are carrying out a bit of a humane cull.'

While all gulls will feed on small, surface-shoaling crustaceans and fish, some species eat anything that is of suitable size.

They are often seen swooping on discarded food and litter around the coast, with some travelling inland by around 10km to forage.

The resident of the house where the seagull was spotted said it often watches the starlings and their chicks