Murmuration
Etymology
From Latin "murmurare" ("to murmur, hum"), evoking the sound of many wings and voices. It survives from the medieval English tradition of poetic collective nouns, listed in the 1486 Book of St Albans alongside "a parliament of owls."
noun · /MUR-muh-RAY-shun/
A large flock of starlings, especially one wheeling and pulsing through the sky in coordinated waves.
What it names
Both the collective — a group of starlings — and one of nature’s most mesmerizing displays of self-organizing motion.
Example
At dusk the murmuration folded and unfolded above the pier like drifting smoke.
Related idea
Compare stigmergy — coordination with no leader — which describes the mechanism behind the murmuration’s ever-shifting shape.