amazing starlings murmuration (full HD) -www.keepturningleft.co.uk

raisingmaggie1 HN recommenders · 2013–2022
3.5M views · other · evergreen · Uploaded 2010-11-13

Footage of a huge flock of starlings performing a murmuration, filmed by wildlife cameraman Dylan Winter. The flock moves in tightly coordinated shapes.

Cited as a benchmark for leaderless swarm behavior that robots and drones could aim to match.

Watch on YouTube

4 comments from Hacker News

@lutusp2013 · in “Professor Develops 'Brain' for Robots”

> But why is there a "leader" to begin with? In swarms of birds the older birds do have some specific roles, but real "leaders" seem to me a brittle approach. I agree, and it seems nature agrees. Anyone who think a leader is required should watch a flight of a thousand starlings maneuver adeptly without collisions, a swarm of bees or ants carry out their duties without any command hierarchy, or a modern government rob the people blind with nary a collision between the overwhelming number of redundant departments. [VIDEO] (starlings in flight)

@sounds2015 · in “A girl who gets gifts from birds”

As someone who has worked a LOT with drones of all form factors (quad copters, propeller drones, battery and dead dinosaur-fueled), when drones can do this, drones will be cool: [VIDEO] Context: [LINK]

@jbob20002018 · in “Colorado Lawmakers Seek to Make Flying Drones Over Wildfires a Felony”

If you manage to develop a drone swarm system that drops things, the last thing it will be used for is fighting fires. I'm waiting for someone to develop drones that swarm like starlings ( [VIDEO] ). You could take down an entire battlegroup with a couple thousand suicide drones.

@pflanze2022 · in “The mesmerising murmurations of Europe’s starlings”

One with higher quality (not the same recording): [VIDEO] . Youtube also refers to some other nice recordings from that one. (There's also a video with intermediate quality, and otherwise distracting parts, but amazing formations too: [LINK] / [LINK] ) Sadly I haven't found one with (just) original sound (no music).

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