murmuration
English
Etymology
1350-1400; Medieval Latin murmuratio (“murmuring, grumbling”). The "starling" sense is probably derived from the sound of the very large groups that starlings form at dusk.
Noun
murmuration (plural murmurations)
- An act or instance of murmuring.
- (ornithology, collective) A flock of starlings.
- 2013 March 19, Ed Yong, “How the Science of Swarms Can Help Us Fight Cancer and Predict the Future”, in Wired[1]:
- The same dynamics can be seen in starlings: On clear winter evenings, murmurations of the tiny blackish birds gather in Rome’s sunset skies, wheeling about like rustling cloth.
- 2017 July 29, “Solved, the riddle of starlings' aerial ballet: Birds use acrobatics to ward off creatures of prey”, in Daily Mail[2]:
- Professor Anne Goodenough, an applied ecologist at the University of Gloucestershire who led the research, said: ‘It appears murmuration has become the norm – a general way for the starlings to stay safe from predators.’
- An emergent order in a multi-agent social system.
Further reading
- Flocking (behavior) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Example of starling murmuration from YouTube.