When you see the big flocks of birds moving as one, as in the Carling advert, how on earth do they end up moving anywhere? How far does the typical flock travel in a day? Who "decides" that it should move forward?
When I see the shoals of fish, they seem to be swimming in a specific direction until a predator attacks, which is when they then move in all directions like the birds. But the birds don't ever seem to be moving any substantial distance.
2007-02-20 19:58:26 · 3 answers · asked by Quickswitch79 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
Sometimes they aren't trying to move anywhere, they are just hanging out together, but sometimes they inch their way around by following their food or copying each other, if one bird sees food nearby it might fly a little distance away to get it, its neighbours will see that it is on to a good thing and will wander over to join it, this wave of movement will generally travel through the whole flock, since nobody wants to be left behind.
Major flock movements can also be started by one or a few individuals, particularly responses to predators, if a bird sees a predator it will take off asap and probably give an alarm call, when its flockmates see this they will do the same, as any bird who is silly enough not to copy will probably be the one who gets eaten.
While they are flying together, it is generally the birds at the front that get to decide where to go, I'm not sure if more experienced birds are more likely to take the lead than younger ones, but it would be interesting to find out.
Well, that's all I know about the topic, I hope I've at least partly answered your question.
2007-02-20 20:20:29 · answer #1 · answered by Ombry 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Mathematical studies have been done about this behavior. If each bird/fish stays a certain distance away from the others then they will look like they are moving as a group. In many species there is a leader. What I have seen that is interesting is when a large flock of birds splits in two. How is this determined? Who leads each half? Computer simulations have imitated this behavior by restricting each bird/fish to a range of distances from each other. I still th ink there is a great deal of randomness that isn't understood yet.
2007-02-20 20:11:05 · answer #2 · answered by smartprimate 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You got two good answers there, to a very interesting question. All I know is that thousands of the little perishers fly around my house before settling in a big tree outside my garden. They then proceed to crap all over my car. Happens every winter, and the birds***t comes down like rain!
2007-02-20 21:46:09 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋