[WJW]

I agree with you that starling murmuration are chaotic systems in the mathematical sense. I don't think that this pop-sci article meant chaos in the mathematical sense though:

> “I’m interested in the transient moments when chaos briefly changes to order, and thousands of individual bodies appear to move as one,”

This quote in the article from the photographer makes it clear that she considered the birds to look/be chaotic before the brief moment when all the bodies moved as one.