The Role of Projection in the Control of Bird Flocks
Pearce, Miller, Rowlands, and Turner
Many animals form swarms: cohesive and coherent groups that help individuals gain protection from predators. Some of the most dramatic of these swarms are the murmurations of starlings, shown here. These swarms are usually modeled by assuming that each bird interacts only with a couple of the birds that immediately surround it. These models can describe the shape and structure of large flocks.