What are leaders made of? The role of individual experience in determining leader-follower relations in homing pigeons

► Study explores mechanisms of collective decision making in pigeon group navigation. ► Navigational experience is hypothesized to affect leadership in heterogeneous groups. ► Results show that more experienced birds are more likely to emerge as leaders. ► This tendency is more pronounced when difference between birds' experience is large. ► Spontaneous leadership by experienced individuals can increase efficiency of group.