ArticleeLife2019
Compound-V formations in shorebird flocks.
Article in eLife, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- A minimal wake-vortex model explains formation flight of flapping birds.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Pigeons in a flock go cheap: a re-evaluation of the energetics of flying in cluster flocks.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Behavior and biomechanics: flapping frequency during tandem and solo flights of cliff swallows.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- It pays to follow the leader: Metabolic cost of flight is lower for trailing birds in small groups.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Swimming in a school shelters fish from turbulence.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Small energy benefits of in-wake flying in long-duration migratory flights.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Changes in local interaction rules during ontogeny underlie the evolution of collective behavior.iScience · 2023Article
- Changes in local interaction rules during ontogeny underlie the evolution of collective behavior.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Characterization of bird formations using fuzzy modelling.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Animal groups have emergent properties that result from simple interactions among individuals. However, we know little about why animals adopt different interaction rules because of sparse sampling among species. Here, we identify an interaction rule that holds across single and mixed-species flocks of four migratory shorebird species spanning a seven-fold range of body masses. The rule, aligning with a one-wingspan lateral distance to nearest neighbors in the same horizontal plane, scales linearly with wingspan but is independent of nearest neighbor distance and neighbor species. This rule propagates outward to create a global flock structure that we term the compound-V formation. We propose that this formation represents an intermediary between the cluster flocks of starlings and the simple-V formations of geese and other large migratory birds. We explore multiple hypotheses regarding the benefit of this flock structure and how it differs from structures observed in other flocking species.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.