A phenomenological model for the collective landing of bird flocks.
A three-dimensional phenomenological model was developed to describe the collective landing of bird flocks. The employed individual based model included the landscape (as an external field) and a continuous internal variable G, to characterize the landing intent of the birds. The birds' interaction with the landscape was coupled adaptively to their landing intent. During the flight, a sharp crossover is observed in the dynamics of the landing intent, i.e. from the initial, non-landing state (small G) to the landing state (large G) that was terminated by the landing of the flock. In the model, the landing process appears to be a highly concerted, collective motion of the birds, in agreement with the field observations.
Daruka
István
I
Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Geneva, 211 Geneva 4, Switzerland. idaruka@general.elte.hu
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D001717:Birds; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005426:Flight, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological