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Now that has got to be the coolest thing I’ve seen all week.
That is amazing! I’ve seen a flock about 1/4 that size turn into a whirlpool and disappear down a neighbor’s chimney. I phoned and asked, “Is your flue closed?” He answered, “Sure.” “OK, don’t light a fire.”
Where did a thousand starlings land inside a large brick chimney?
It’s magic!
“This kind of perfection of movement in nature is irreducibly complex, therefore, God exists”.
Oh, come on religious fanatics, say it out loud!
ah synchronized bird pooping…… i woulda ‘ducked’ when the went overhead… i could only imagine them letting loose as they fly over…
on a lighter note… i had a flock of simonized starlings many years ago… their flying what brilliant….
😛
Ok. That’s pretty cool, but I’m not sure synchronized is the correct term. Birds move in relation to each other, so they appear to move as a unit. Calling it synchronized is like calling a waterfall a synchronized collection of water droplets.
Years ago, a guy using Visual Basic 6, of all things, proved it was just a function of math. The birds have three simple rules that they follow at all times:
1. I must be at least x distance away from any other bird in the flock
2. I must never be more than y distance away from any neighboring bird.
3. When I move, it must be in the average directional heading of my local neighbors.
The program was called vbBoid, but apparently the source code is no longer available.
Here is a page that describes some research that was done in the late 80’s:
http://www.red3d.com/cwr/boids/
To a bird, that must be the equivalent to being on a Harley in the middle of 200+ Harleys, heading up the PCH mildly high on weed.
Reminds me of the classic Alfred Hitchcock movie- “The Birds”
How scary
Here in Australia, our most ancient immigrants developed the function of throwing a bent stick into such a flock to generate “dinner”. Although I think in this case it’s generate “all you can eat buffet”.
M0les.
Interesting. The movement characteristics are very similar to a large school of fish.
Ulra cool as long as that flock isn’t nesting anywhere near my house.