PATRICIA SANDONIS

The starling- in German `Star`- is one of the residents who have lived in Berlin for years. This bird, which has been gathering on Museum Island every summer and autumn afternoon since the beginning of the new century to offer us an unforgettable show, is gradually leaving the city to move to southern cities of Europe. Scientists from around the world have hypothesized how collective flight behaviour might work, which sometimes involves more than 100,000 birds.
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Still, one can see the Star at places like Alexanderplatz or Warschauer Straße, where most fast food restaurant are, close to Curry Wurst Imbiss, their favourite food, or close to China Noodles Imbiss, their second favourite food.
The fascinating adaptation of this bird not just to the city but to a specific city made it to bird of the year 2018. The Starling flocks, where thousands of individuals fly together without collapse, are still a mystery to the science, that called these phenomena "Uncertainty in consensus".
It is believed, that to make such a flock possible, a single bird needs to keep the closed seven other birds on eye. No bird knows where the flock goes and no bird follow a specific leader.
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