Link, just in case anyone hasn’t already seen it.
It’s not so much the fact that they follow, but before that, they converge–then follow him. Even the stragglers that are off screen to the right. Before they follow him for feeding, they join the rest of the group. Something to do with sorting out the pecking order?
It looked to me like they were conditioned to enter as a flock. The group on the left had the strongest resemblance to a flock so they all started from that point. Interesting to see that.
While not an expert, I would assume that birds/ducks do have organize into a flocking/pecking order before they move as one. I’m sure that birds must do this in the air before they begin a migratory flight. They can’t all just decide to head south on their own, so they must form some type of huddle and communicate a plan. If they all ran towards the farmer at once, chaos would ensue. They form a flock on the ground that moves like liquid and quickly changes shape to flow through the barn door. So yes, I think that they had to ‘flock’ first. Great video BTW.
It looked to me like there was a lead duck, and they all converged on that duck. He only had to teach them to gather on the duck, and to teach that duck to follow him. The first was their own instinct; he just had to figure out which one they all followed, then taught that duck to obey some simple commands.
If you look closely… you will see that… these ducks… move as a group… on his command.