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Computer-style game aims to explain why Starlings murmurate
New research aims to answer the question of why Starlings murmurate
SCIENTISTS FROM THE Universities of Bristol and Groningen, in the Netherlands, have created a computer game style experiment which offers new and more certain answers to one of birdwatching’s most-asked questions – why exactly do Starlings form murmurations? Each of these gatherings can hold thousands of birds, and scientists have now observed that flocks of Starlings are larger, and more densely packed, in areas with more predators, such as raptors, and that attacks by such predators are less likely to succeed against larger groups of Starlings. In larger groups, more birds can be on the look-out for predators at any one time, and there is evidence that larger groups also allow faster transfer of information – if one bird sees a predator it might turn to escape, causing other birds to turn, even if they’ve not seen the danger directly themselves. Another suggestion is that predators may be confused by the sheer number of potential prey, something which is called the ‘confusion effect’. Benedict Hogan, a PHD student based at the School of Biological Sciences in Bristol, explained: “Testing these theories is difficult in the wild, so we traded hawks for human participants, and made a computer game style experiment, where the participant attempts to fly in and catch one target Starling in a flock of up to 5,000 simulated Starlings. “We aimed to find out whether or not confusion does occur in these massive and complex aggregations. We found that, in line with the predictions of the confusion effect, participants had more difficulty in capturing a target Starling in larger flocks, and in denser flocks; and that these effects interacted. “However, it is likely that predator confusion is only one of many functions of these impressive groups in Starlings.” ÊNATURAL WONDER Starling murmurations are a delight to witness – but it’s not known why they do it
In larger groups, more birds can be on the look-out for predators at any one time