Book 31, Question 101
How do thousands of starlings turn together without crashing?
A huge flock of starlings swirling in the sky is called a murmuration.
Scientists found that each bird pays attention to only the closest six or seven neighbors, not the whole crowd. When one bird turns, its neighbors turn, and the change ripples across the flock in a wave. No bird is the leader, yet the whole group moves like one shape.
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Quick answers
How do thousands of starlings turn together without crashing?
The team has learned that no matter how large the flock, each starling interacts with only seven neighbors, which might be as much as their brains can handle.
Source: National Geographic
More fun facts
- Each starling is paying attention to only seven others, but its senses effectively extend across the entire flock, and it can respond to events occurring hundreds of birds away.
- The exact neighbors change from second to second, but the starlings don’t track these shifting alliances.
- Pre-roost murmuration displays by European starlings Sturnus vulgaris are a spectacular example of collective animal behaviour.
- She’s trying to understand how the patterns arise depending on the falcon’s behavior, the flock’s prior formations, or actions of individual starlings.