#Flocks of birds flying in patterns series#

Nature, while possessing a simple elegance, can evoke profound awe. This challenges viewers to reconsider the common place.

#Flocks of birds flying in patterns series#

Her current painting series takes bird feathers in extreme closeup, a “bug’s eye view,” and transforms them into bold abstractions. The science is simple and demystifies the stunning vision of perfect flight. For any bird, if uncertainty arose as to direction, it immediately adjusted to the pattern of its closet seven pals in flight. Keane is fascinated with patterns found in nature-the veins of leaves, the spiral of fiddlehead ferns, a lone Blue Jay feather. Young, evaluated photos and videos from flocks of 440 to around 2,600 in size. Keane is inspired by her young daughter's joy and awe of discovering her world through the beauty of nature's patterns. This passion-driven learning approach mirrors her own interests in the arts, natural science, and complex design. She is co-creator of the Beautiful Discovery approach to learning STEM topics. She has also taught adults art (drawing and painting) outside of an academic setting. She has taught students at the elementary, high school, and university levels. in Art Education (grades K-12) and a PhD in Art History. One group of researchers determined that when one starling changes direction or speed, each member of the flock responds almost instantaneously, regardless of the size of the flock-a phenomenon they termed “scale-free correlation.” Another group determined that starlings in large flocks consistently coordinate their movements with their seven nearest neighbors.K.J. The motion of starling flocks is so fascinating that it has inspired study among computational physicists who try to understand how such coordination can spontaneously arise. Flap and Glide Ravens, owls and hawks commonly take a break from flapping their wings by soaring and gliding. Canada geese were once thought of as exclusively migratory, but now they remain in many states, including Kansas. Direct Flight Many species including ducks, herons, shorebirds and blackbirds fly in a straight and level path while continuously flapping their wings. Evening grosbeaks aren’t showing up in as many areas as they used to, but they are still common in Oregon and other parts of the West. Read A Darwinian Dance in Living Bird magazine for more.) These are just a few samples of the ways bird migration patterns have changed over the years. (Incidentally, these flocks often form because a Peregrine Falcon or other raptor is nearby.

But starling flocks in particular display remarkable density of individuals, fluidity of motion, and frequent changes in direction. Even in the case of geese, which appear to have a leader, the movement of the flock is actually governed collectively.

Surprising as it may be, flocks of birds are rarely led by a single individual. They create immense, swirling figures across the sky (often called “murmurations,” though this term technically applies to any group of starlings) that are hard to miss. One common example is flocks of European Starlings. We often marvel at the amazing collective movements of groups of birds, from groups of sandpipers wheeling in a hairpin turn along a beach, to skeins of Snow Geese flying over the prairie. The simple answer to this deceptively complex question is that birds in a flock pay close attention to the birds around them-particularly their closest neighbors.