the.com/flock
a thousand birds sharing one brain and never bothering to elect a leader
means a group of birds, sheep, or other animals that move together, or by extension a congregation of people following a shared leader.
from From Old English 'flocc,' meaning a band or crowd of people, related to Old Norse 'flokkr,' a troop or company. Curiously, the word started out about humans — a 'flock' of warriors or followers — before it drifted toward birds and sheep, and the church later borrowed it back to mean a congregation, with the priest as shepherd. There may also be a separate Old English 'flocc' meaning a tuft of wool, which keeps oddly fitting company with the sheep.
- no boss
- murmurations follow simple rules, not commanders
- three rules
- align, avoid, attract: that's the whole code
- clergy roots
- originally meant a pastor's human congregation
- starling swarms
- can pack over a million birds
- split-second
- turn signals ripple faster than a hawk reacts
murmuration of starlings — thousands of starlings moving in synchronized waves over otmoor, oxfordshire, england each winter
wildebeest migration — 1.5 million wildebeest crossing the serengeti-mara ecosystem annually between tanzania and kenya
monarch butterfly migration — up to 2 billion monarchs migrating from canada to mexico each autumn