Birds that seemingly commit suicide

Werner Herzog's amazing documentary on Antarctica (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1093824) briefly discusses depression and suicide among penguins.

It's pure Herzog goodness. Though he sounds almost like a caricature of himself in the passage the reflection is still thought provoking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWH_9VRWn8Y

Nothing in this article suggests that the birds die intentionally (suicide). They drown accidentally. Linkbaity title?

Very linkbaity title - content of article is not in the slightest like title. And the title on HN is not the title from the BBC article anyway.

Better title: When Starlings drown accidentally, group mentality causes them to drown in groups.

Not an exciting title, but accurate.

Actually, that title isn't accurate either because the article doesn't claim that to be the case; it only speculates. Nor does it even rule out some form of "suicide".

> They can’t be suicidal

Maybe they could. We know of various parasites which turn their hosts suicidal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior-altering_parasites_an...