The starlings were found with blood oozing from their beaks and their claws curled up as if they were in pain
Covering an area 12ft across, more than 100 birds carpeted the garden, each with blood oozing from its beak and curled up claws.
Most had died, although some flapped lamely, clearly in pain until the RSPCA put them out of their misery.
The starlings weer found with blood oozing from their beaks and their claws curled up as if they were in pain
Householder Julie Knight, 53, returned to her home in the quiet village of Coxley at 4.15pm to find the macabre scene, which has mystified experts.
Julie, a nurse, said: 'It was like something out of an horror film - like Hitchcock's The Birds - it was absolutely terrifying.
'The sky was raining starlings. One of my neighbours saw them. They seemed to just fall out of the sky. About 70 were dead straight away.
'The only way to describe what they looked like is that they seemed to have had a fright and were petrified.
'We called out the RSPCA and their animal welfare officer took a few away in cages and euthanised the rest.
'There must have been over 100 birds in total. I've been a country girl all my life and I've never seen anything like it.'
Some of the birds fell just outside Julie Knight's garden, in Coxley, Somerset, with just six surviving in total
Some of the birds fell just outside Julie Knight's garden, in Coxley, Somerset, with just six surviving in total
The uncanny scene in Mrs Knight's garden mirrored that of an episode of cult BBC hit Flash Forward, in which a flock of crows falls out of the sky in Somalia.
Similar incidents of flocks of birds plummeting to earth have been reported all over the world, with pesticides and collisions sometimes being blamed.
Mrs Knight added: 'I'm worried about what could have killed them because I have a young grandson and two cats that are often in my garden.
'My only thoughts are that the birds, who are greedy in nature, had been eating crops sprayed with weedkiller and were poisoned - but it's all very weird.'
Lloyd Scott, from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: 'This is one of the oddest things I've ever heard about.
'We've certainly never come across anything similar.'
In the hit BBC thriller series Flash Forward crows fell from the sky, in a spooky incident which mirrored that at Mrs Knight's Somerset house on Sunday
He said it was unlikely that the birds had flown into each other in confusion.
'Starlings have natural habits and behaviour, when flying around in a murmuration they relate each movement to the seven birds closest to them.
'They are hardwired into doing this and on instinct they stay away from each other.'
He speculated that the birds may have flown into a glass conservatory while taking part in their sky dance, but Mrs Knight insisted they had simply fallen out of the sky.
An RSPCA spokesman said tests were being carried out to determine the cause of the deaths.
The birds were spotted falling from the sky and on to the driveway of a house in Coxley, Somerset, on Sunday March 7.
RSPCA animal welfare officer Alison Sparkes was alerted to the unusual incident by the police and went to help.
She said: "It was a remarkable sight and I've never seen anything like it before.
"Onlookers said they heard a whooshing sound and then the birds just hit the ground. They had fallen on to the ground in quite a small area, about 12 feet in diameter.
"They appeared to be in good condition other than injuries that they appear to have suffered when they hit they ground.
"Our best guess is that this happened because the starlings were trying to escape a predator such as a sparrow hawk and ended up crash landing."
She discovered that most of the birds had suffered broken beaks, broken legs and wings and abdominal injuries, but were otherwise in good bodily condition.
All but five of the birds were dead and the survivors had to be put to sleep by veterinary staff at the RSPCA's West Hatch Wildlife Centre, Taunton, Somerset, because of their severe injuries.
There is no evidence that the birds had been poisoned or were ill before they crashed into the ground.