When birds like these Dunlin form flocks, each individual is less likely to be captured by a predator. Some shorebirds that forage with their heads down, like godwits, will flock with birds that forage with their heads up, like curlews. Still other birds work together —  like American White Pelicans driving fish before them or auklets that surround schools of herring and herd them like a border collie does sheep.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. 

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