Hello and welcome.

This is the Science of Birds.

I am your host, Ivan Philipson.

The Science of Birds podcast is a lighthearted, guided exploration of bird biology for lifelong learners.

This episode, which is number 57, is all about the flocking behavior of birds.

Birds of many species spend at least part of their yearly cycle hanging out in groups.

This could be just a handful of individuals, or it could be a gathering of millions of birds.

At first thought, we might take this sort of thing as just a simple behavior in birds,

one that isn't very complex,

or, for that matter, very interesting. Like, here are some birds. Oh, look, they decided to fly

around together. La di da, end of story. But you and I know that just about every aspect of nature is way more complex than it appears on the surface.

The same goes for flocking behavior.

There's a lot going on here.

Today, we'll look at some explanations for why, as the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together.

What benefits do birds get from forming groups like this?

We'll also look at how flocks work, as in their mechanics.

For example, how do birds communicate and coordinate their movements in a flock?

All right, shall we begin?

Among birds, there's a wide variety of flock types.

They range from tiny to supermassive, of course.

But flocks can vary in more ways than just size.

Some flocks are loose and temporary, lasting only for a season or only during migration.

...