Consider now some anisotropic behaviour in the field... You have asked how the individual starling orients itself within the murmuration? And you have also asked how tight formation flight, and abrupt changes in direction can be undertaken by the murmuration without formal organisation? The answer lies in a proclivity of individuals towards a mutual dependency on the direction taken by its nearest five to ten neighbours. The cohesion between individuals of the murmuration is organised in little wave-fronts of five to ten individuals. Each wave is arranged wing tip to wing tip, side by side, rather than between birds from front to behind. That is to say, the murmuration as an emergent three dimensional structure constructed out of little, interlocking waves of individuals, is organised in terms of its second dimension, breadth. This proclivity to organising the murmuration's breadth leaves open, and unplanned, that space which is experienced as the 1st and 3rd dimensions (length and depth). The murmuration's broad fronted openness allows it to execute its improvisations within the space which lies immediately in front, above and below it. If the murmuration allows itself to be constrained in one dimension then this fixity also sets it free in two others. Let he who has ears hear!
