Have a look at this video:
It shows a flock of starlings coming into roost in Rome. It
could also be called a swarm of starlings. A swarm
is a group of many animals in the air or on the ground. Starlings
stay together in large groups for safety in numbers. In a large
group, an individual starling has less chance of being eaten by a
predator.
Science of swarms
Many scientists are studying swarms, because there's a lot we
don't know about them. How do all the animals know which way to go?
There doesn't seem to be a leader. In a flock of starlings, no
single bird calls out directions, but the flock all flies together.
How?
Have you ever walked down a street and seen someone looking up?
Did it make you look up too? Humans tend to copy the behaviour
around them. Iain Couzin studies collective decision making - what
makes one animal copy the behaviour of another animal? Could this
help explain why swarms happen? Have a look at this video of Iain
Couzin discussing his work. Watch out for the cannibal locusts! The
video is here:
Swarm Mentality from Scienceline on Vimeo.
Next time you see a flock of birds, or school of fish, have a
look at what they're doing. Test Iain Couzin's hypothesis. Do all
the individual animals align with their neighbour? Is this what
drives the swarm's movement?