Various groups of animals (particularly flocks of birds and swarms of bees) begin and end their flights synchronically. The reason has remained a mystery to scientists for many years. Formerly, many believed the group’s leader made the decision to land.
To explain the strange behavior among birds, Hungarian physicists created a model in which each bird is compared with a particle model with definite coordinates and speed. Later the scientists studied the influence of various parameters on the movement of such a particle system.
The study showed that the decision to land is taken by the birds collectively. Moreover, the decision is much more dependent on external influences than the leader of the flock.
