How Bird Flocks Resemble Liquid Helium

sciencehabit (1205606) writes "A flock of starlings flies as one, a spectacular display in which each bird flits about as if in a well-choreographed dance. Everyone seems to know exactly when and where to turn. Now, for the first time, researchers have measured how that knowledge moves through the flock—a behavior that mirrors certain quantum phenomena of liquid helium. Some of the more interesting findings: Tracking data showed that the message for a flock to turn started from a handful of birds and swept through the flock at a constant speed between 20 and 40 meters per second. That means that for a group of 400 birds, it takes just a little more than a half-second for the whole flock to turn."

Comments

This is cold, man.

[Anonymous Coward]

So cold. Liquid helium cold.

Smart Birds

[Anonymous Coward]

Bird#1 - "Hey lets do our formation exercise as always after 5 seconds we turn right then left after 6 seconds....the humans will think we are telepathic or something"

Re:That's good.

[Neil Boekend]

Of course not. Birds don't run, they fly.

Re:There have been attempts before

[RaceProUK]

Wouldn't it be funny if it turned out the T-Rex actually barked like a Yorkshire terrier?

Re:There have been attempts before

[JustOK]

How would a T-Rex know what a Yorkshire terrier sounded like?