How birds influence each other in coordinated flight decoded

In a first, researchers have found how each individual in a pigeon flock is influenced by or members during flight, an vance that may le to a better understanding of biological networks.

researchers, including those from Souast University in China, studied synchronised flight of three flocks of ten pigeons each to understand mechanisms behind coordinated behaviour.

Until w synchronised flight in birds was believed to be influenced by three basic rules -- avoid collision with peers, match speed and direction of motion with rest of group, and try to stay near centre, y said.

current study, published in journal Chaos, examined how every individual pigeon within a flock is influenced by or members of group, and revealed that dynamics are t so simple.

researchers sampled each bird's position, velocity, and acceleration with time, and used this data to estimate which pigeons directly influenced each or individual in group.

From this data, scientists constructed a network to furr observe deep interaction rules between pigeons, and found a few trends in flock motion. 

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Based on some factors such as location in flock, every pigeon has neighbours it influences, as well as neighbours it is influenced by, study ted.

influencers are also likely to change throughout flight, researchers ded.

"Interestingly, individuals closer to mass centre and aver velocity direction are more influential to ors, which means location and flight direction are two factors that matter in ir interactions," said study co-author Duxin Chen, an assistant professor at Souast University.

researchers said y did t consider pigeon social patterns for ir estimation since earlier research h shown that hierarchies between birds were independent of dominance y exhibited during flight.

Chen and his team suggested that ir method could be used to study or coordinated behaviours, and plan to examine collective functioning of cells in immune system. 

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