Murmuration Filmed on the River Shannon in the country of Ireland, two independent filmmakers captured thousands – yes, thousands – of starlings moving in unison across the sky. Creating beautiful abstract images as they twist and turn, never once do individual birds bump into each other, even when patterns flow and merge together.
How is this possible? The science tells us:
“Starling flocks, it turns out, are best described with equations of “critical transitions” — systems that are poised to tip, to be almost instantly and completely transformed, like metals becoming magnetized or liquid turning to gas. Each starling in a flock is connected to every other. When a flock turns in unison, it’s a phase transition.
“At the individual level, the rules guiding this are relatively simple. When a neighbor moves, so do you. Depending on the flock’s size and speed and its members’ flight physiologies, the large-scale pattern changes.”
