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“7″ Is Apparently Key for Efficiency

Even though a murmuration can involve thousands of starlings, some scientists suggest that they only coordinate with their seven closest neighbors.
Even though a murmuration can involve thousands of starlings, some scientists suggest that they only coordinate with their seven closest neighbors. Photo: Jeff J Mitchell (Getty Images)

Another study from Princeton in 2013 offered evidence that starlings chose seven nearby friends in order to strike an optimal balance between responding to social cues from specific birds and the need to conserve energy. In other words, per Princeton, in order for a flock to be efficient, the optimal number of neighbors each starling should pay attention to is seven.

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