Posted this related meme on the nature-inspired memes thread: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/nature-inspired-memes/27300/587?u=wildwestnature
Previous work has shown that starlings pay attention to their seven closest neighbors, but until now it was not understood why this number is seven. Our paper explains the mystery
https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002894
Tracking seven neighbours in close proximity in three dimensions at high speed in low light without crashing! They don’t half make a racket. Fishes can use their lateral lines to help track; I wonder if Starlings use sound for multimodal sensing in a flock?