In reply to Jed Rothwell's message of Sun, 9 Dec 2012 16:46:15 -0500: Hi, [snip] ><mix...@bigpond.com> wrote: > > >> ..they only need to follow the bird in front of them, while keeping their >> position to the right or left behind, as the case may be. This way the >> motion of >> the flock leader propagates back through the flock. >> > >Except there is no leader. > >- Jed
Another possibility is that each bird tries to get as close to the center of the flock as possible (i.e. as far from the edge as possible). Those on the edge are more likely to be attacked by predators. However there is clearly some degree of following occurring, which can clearly be seen when a "wave" passes through the flock as they change direction. In either case, it's obvious that each bird takes it's queues from the others in one way or another, otherwise there would be no flock at all. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
