Swarms: Why Starlings Move Like Liquid

Subscribe and unleash your inner science goblin. It’s time for Swarms.

In the kickoff to our Swarms Minisodes, Katy and Laura dive into one of nature’s most mesmerizing spectacles: the murmuration of starlings. These jaw-dropping bird formations swirl through the sky like smoke or liquid—but behind the beauty is a stunning system of rules, physics, and evolutionary strategy.

🐦 What exactly is a murmuration—and why do starlings do it?
 🌪 How can thousands of birds turn on a dime with no leader?
 🧠 What’s “scale-free correlation” and how does it keep the group alive?
 🎭 And what does Shakespeare have to do with a Central Park starling invasion?

From predator evasion to 3D modeling, this minisode explores the science, chaos, and choreography behind one of nature’s most hypnotic behaviors.

👉 This is episode 1 of our Swarms series—six short episodes exploring how animals move together, from birds to bugs to bacteria.

Transcript

Katy: So if you didn't listen to our first episode you might have noticed something a little bit different. We have a fricking theme song now, guys,

Laura: yeah. Boy.

Katy: which is exciting, and then hopefully you stuck around after that episode then to listen to, to the whole thing.

Because I, I mean, you gotta jam out to it. It's just, it's just way more fun. So this episode, just like we've done in the last few seasons, it seems to work very well and we've gotten a lot of positive feedback on it, is we do a long episode and then we do mini episode long mini, and we just alternate.

Laura: It's nice for us and nice for you

Katy: Yeah. It, it makes things way easier on us, which is delightful. The mini series for this one. So we've done caves, bogs, volcanoes. Ecosystems of things like that. So we decided to switch it up a little bit, and now we're gonna be talking about the nature of swarms.

Laura: Hmm.

Katy: how swarms they move as one to survive, communicate, thrive, and animal swarms are nature's most dynamic displays of collective behavior.

Laura: It's [00:01:00] pretty amazing. I actually, this is one of the ones where we were still on the same brain wave. I had to come back three times because you get your ideas in first, and then I tried, and then I tried, and then I

Katy: I try it again and I try it again. So since this is the first episode, they're gonna be talking about swarms. I figured it was, as we normally do, kind of give an overview of what is a swarm. Now. I have to directly read this definition because I laughed. Probably way harder than I should have.

Laura: Perfect.

Katy: At the definition of what a swarm is. 'cause I never really thought about it. Like, you know, okay, what's a, but you don't really think

Laura: of an right, like it's just a lot of animals. I don't like.

Katy: So a swarm is a large collection of self-propelled creatures, you know?

Laura: Rather than a catapult

Katy: Exactly. Unlike the creatures we launch into the skies and, you know, those aren't, those aren't swarms.

So. Put away. Put away my trade bache. These are all animals that are self-propelled, [00:02:00] that move together as a coordinated group without a central leader. And that is the key. That is the key without a leader. So the, like I said, the central leader is the key term because if they had a leader, one, they'd be.

A cult. But if they had a, well, yeah, or if it was any sort of organized, single leader or leader distribution system. So if you think of any herds, herds, troops, that is a normal group of animals. There's some sort of hierarchy, wolves for, is a really good one where it's like a strict hierarchy or it's more of a collective, like elephants, , you don't see the females fighting.

It's an age thing and a knowledge thing. But you still have that hierarchy of this is the female, the matriarch that we listen to and things. So a swarm though does not have a central leader or a leader system. And they're all apparently self-propelled. So just to [00:03:00] clear.

Laura: there must be like some caveats to this. I'll be interested to see how it goes. Or is this gonna be a situation where we're like, Dino, not a DNO Swarm, not a swarm.

Katy: I mean maybe, but I know the ones that I've picked so far definitely fit this definition. And again, it was like one of those things I never really thought of until I saw the definition, I was like, oh yeah, the self-propelled thing. I'm still.

Laura: I love that they had to add that

Katy: Right. I'm still skeptical about that one, but, all righty.

So swarming behavior, just again, kind of a brief overview of swarming behavior typically emerges from simple rules, stay close, align with your neighbors, avoid collisions. Honestly, for the most part, that's, that's it. All right. And so with that little tidbit of what a swarm

Laura: Stay close.

Katy: right, enter starlings.

Laura: Yes. This is what I wanted to do that you already had. I was

Katy: Of course, because this one is, this one 

Laura: It's so.

Katy: it is really cool. All right. So what are starlings besides invasive to the United States? [00:04:00] European, the European starlings are loud, glossy, black birds. Speckled with an iridescent purple greenish. They're medium sized.

Laura: speckles.

Katy: Hi. What

Laura: They look like stars,

Katy: they do, it really does.

Yeah. Their medium size are highly social and adaptable. And like I said, they're invasive here to the us so where can they be found native to Europe and Asia. They've since spread pretty much all over the world, including over 150 million. Just an estimate of over 150 million in North

Laura: They were purposefully released here in North America.

Katy: Horrible

Laura: They were because, it was all to do with Shakespeare.

Katy: Oh, that's right. That's

Laura: liked that idea of what you are going to talk about, and then they were like, let's bring it here. Not thinking what would happen.

Katy: Yeah, they had no con, no concept of animal repercussions in the day. So what do they eat? They're typically opportunistic, omnivores, feeding on insects, worms, grains, fruit, and even human scraps if, if need be. That's why you see 'em [00:05:00] around, parking lots and things like that.

That flexible diet helps to support their vast swarms, not flocks. I mean, they still fly in flocks. Let's get that straight. Overall, for the most part, birds, and they're flying in flocks, but there is a time where they do swarm and it's called a mation. All right? So if you've ever seen one or if you haven't seen one, , let me at least attempt to describe it for you and Laura, let me know if, huh?

Laura: murmuration.

Katy: Murmuration. Yeah. What did I say?

Laura: mur, mur, murmuration.

Katy: Murmuration.

Laura: It's your, just your er, so it just sounds like you're saying ation, but it's murmuration.

Katy: Yeah, mur, mur, mur murmuration.

Laura: There's a little motorcycles.

Katy: Yeah. That would've made it way cooler if they had these tiny little motor. It's a murmuration of starlings.

Laura: Oh, geez.[00:06:00] 

Katy: So imagine you're standing in a wide open field, because I guarantee you've seen it and probably been like, what the heck is that? You're standing in a field at sunset? Because sunset is typically when you're gonna commonly see 'em do this, and suddenly you see a cloud forming on the horizon. It's not smoke.

It's moving and it's alive. Thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of starlings, swooping, twisting, and curling through the sky in one massive shape. Shifting flock. One second. It might look like a wave. The exit folds in on itself, kind of like if a, like a lung, you know, exhaling sort of thing. It stretches, compresses, ripples, like a sheet or a blanket in the wind moving, not like birds, but more like a liquid shadow.

Yeah.

Laura: or some kind of smoky aerosol

Katy: Yeah. Yep. And then as you're watching that in an instant, the whole thing just pivots. And if they all decided at once, let's just go this way. All right. So it is, it's like very [00:07:00] rhythmic, very flowing, and all of a sudden it's whoop. And it just, everybody, it is almost like it's one creature and not thousands of individual ones.

So that is the mur, mur, mur, mur murmuration. It's not just, it's not just movement, but it is truly like subconscious math, instinct and survival playing out on their part. In Denmark, one of the most famous murmuration happens every spring near the marshes of southwestern JetLine, where more than a million starlings gather at once, and locals call it the Black Sun.

Laura: Whoa. That'd be

Katy: Yeah. So why do Starlings do this? It's not just for the effects of being like, let's give humans a show.

Laura: aerial circuses.

Katy: no one is three. For the most part. They think it's, well, not three, two main purposes, one predator defense. When you're small, tasty, and flying over an open marsh, you need a good strategy for not becoming Hawk food and the memorizations, they work all that shifting and [00:08:00] swirling makes it look incredibly hard for predators like Falcons or hawk to single out one individual bird.

And that's called the confusion effect. It's an aerial version of basically which cup is the. Yeah, the ball under, it's what cups like because they don't know where to go, what to grab. The second reason why they do this is warmth and cohesion. So in the winter, that's why I'm saying like typically at sunset, these giant murmuration help signal to other starlings.

Hey, we're gonna roost for the night. Come join us over here. And they're like, oh, let's go over there. They join it and that way it's a bigger group to stay warmer. 'cause not all starlings migrate. You know, some of 'em do not. All of 'em do. And so some of 'em stay in colder temperatures. And so you'll see them doing those murmuration as like a, Hey guys, come over here.

We're gonna need more.

Laura: It's literally just a giant wave motion. Like, hello.

Katy: Yeah. Come over here. Stay warm. Stay warm. But these. All these movements and everything are not [00:09:00] random. These starlings are not just kind of flapping around in panic, so to say. They're following rules, like I said, simple ones, but collective as a whole, they're rules. So how does that actually work?

There are tens of thousands of birds moving in a single swirling organism without slamming into each other seems nearly impossible to pull off. The short answer to this is they follow local rules, is what it's called. Again, no single leader, like I say, 'cause that's the definition of a swarm.

There's no single leader just being like now left, altogether now kind of thing. Each starling is just following a few simple instructions, which mostly involve the six or seven birds that are closest to it. So, yep. So those simple rules are match your neighbor's speed. Don't crash into anybody.

For the love of flight, just stay in formation. Like that's, just stay together. That's pretty much, that's pretty much it. And because it's not because of just [00:10:00] one leader, it's about like local interaction, which repeats across the entire flock.

Laura: Yeah. And that rippling effect.

Katy: Yep. And that's what ends up happening. Here's where it gets stranger, but cool.

So researchers started using high speed 3D tracking cameras and as they were using those, they found something that they call scale free correlations. So they set up cameras from several different locations and created a 3D model of the swarm to study what the starlings are actually doing.

Say again?

Laura: And the shape. What the shape really

Katy: Yeah, like, well, what's triggering it? Like what is actually happening here? Because again, if it's truly a swarm, there's no single leader. So it's not one bird calling all the shots. And it certainly wasn't that. So the one thing that they found is that the birds are not as densely packed as they might appear from the ground.

Again, that's survival. They wanna appear as one huge, big, massive organism. They don't wanna appear as something small, tiny kind of thing. [00:11:00] So they are closer to their side neighbors. Then to those in front or behind, which is interesting. All right. So I mentioned the term freescale correlation. So what is that? It's essentially if one bird twitches because of a predator wind shift, or it's feeling like something's off the entire flock reacts. It's just a domino effect.

And it's essentially instantly. And that's because of those rules that are match your neighbor's speed. Don't crash into anybody. And just stay in formation. And that's all that they have in their head, and that's what ends up happening and that's how they get that instantaneous move.

So where do the turn start? Turns can begin in any part of the flock, either edge initiated fluctuations. So some studies have showed that the turns often begin at the edges where birds have more room to experiment or respond to outside threats, their movements and ripple inwards, like the first domino tipping over chain [00:12:00] reaction.

There's central sensitivity, but. Birds in the middle aren't necessarily just going with the flow they can see through, 'cause remember, it's, they're not as close as what it appears. So the ones in the middle can definitely see out and see what's coming. And so by seeing through the flock, they can respond to subtle shifts, even initiating movement themselves.

And yes, sometimes the murmuration flips because of something the center bird detects. And the signal falls. So like, let's say if you're a bird in the middle. And you can see way off in the distance. There's a hawk. If that bird moves, it's like, oh my gosh, we're all moving now, kind of thing. All right, so, in a nutshell what the murmuration are. I mean, I don't know if you have any questions. I did a good bit of research onto these, but I mean, not a ton. 'cause again, it's a mini so, but I thought it was really cool. It's something that you see often.

Laura: And if you haven't, like you definitely need to try to like, if you don't live in a country where there are [00:13:00] starlings, look up a video because the murmuration are beautiful.

Katy: Yeah, it is very memorizing. Like it is something that you're watching and you're just like, kind of stuck, you know? Watching it, watching

Laura: Because you just can't believe that that many things can move in that sort of coordination. Like it's like perfection of coordinated flight.

Katy: So Murmuration, so, make sure you guys visit Patreon like us on social media. If you just search up Wildly Curious podcast on any of the social media platforms, you'll be able to find us.

Definitely subscribers on YouTube 'cause that's where you can see our faces and everything that we, all the motions and

Laura: Yeah. Yeah. All of our hand things that we just did in

Katy: You're, you guys are only listening in the podcast version. You guys are missing some amazing, all the hand motions here. All right. So yeah, so next week then we're gonna be having a regular long episode and then we'll go back to swarms , and vice versa.

So until next week, guys. Oh yeah. Wait, we gotta jam out. They gotta jam out to the song now,

Laura: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stay tuned. Don't go

Katy: yeah, don't go [00:14:00] away. You guys gotta jam out here,

Laura: but talk to you next week.