Date: 4/6/26 12:18 pm From: Edmund LeGrand (via carolinabirds Mailing List) <carolinabirds...> Subject: Re Flocking behavior and Boids
I was surprised that the linked 2019 article on flocking behavior didn’t
mention Boids, the landmark artificial life program from 1986 that
demonstrates just how simple flocking behavior can be, though it looks so
complex. The bird-oids are programmed to 1) be attracted to others nearby,
2) not get dangerously close, and 3) fly in the same direction as the
others nearby. The program is easy to find on-line, and it’s fun to watch
the randomly moving bird-like objects gradually form a cohesive flock on
the screen. I’d recommend looking in the library of programs in NetLogo, a
free computer simulation website, for that and other fascinating computer
simulations (e.g., grass-sheep-wolf, traffic jams, forest fires).
Here’s the introduction from Wikipedia:
*“Boids* is an artificial life program, developed by Craig Reynolds in
1986, which simulates the flocking behaviour of birds, and related group
motion. His paper on this topic was published in 1987 in the proceedings of
the ACM SIGGRAPH conference.[1] The name "boid" corresponds to a shortened
version of "bird-oid object", which refers to a bird-like object, as well
as referencing the stereotypical New York pronunciation of 'bird' as /ˈbəɪd/
.[2][3] Reynolds' boid model is one example of a larger general concept,
for which many other variations have been developed since.”
Edmund LeGrand
Fauquier Co., VA
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Date: Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:26:48 +0000
Subject: Bird flocking behavior paper
Interesting paper on how birds make decisions in flocking behavior.
