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+--- Thread: Bird's Plurality: Describing Groups of Birds (/Thread-Bird-s-Plurality-Describing-Groups-of-Birds)
Bird's Plurality: Describing Groups of Birds - 4sweed - 02-26-2013
I discovered this list of a way to describe birds in groups, something we normally don't know unless your a bird watcher, or someone who follows bird patterns and studies birds. Some of these I had heard before, most of them being the game birds, but one would think there must be a group name for a bunch of parrots. lol
There goes:
A siege of herons or bitterns
A plump of wildfowl
A gaggle of geese
A skein of geese (flying)
A badelyng of ducks
A sord (or sute) of mallards
A spring of teal
A company of widgeon
A cast of hawks
A bevy of quail
A covey of partridges
A muster of peacocks
A covert of coots
A congregation of plovers
A desert of lapwings
A wish (or walk) of snipe
A bazaar of murres (guillemots)
A flight of doves or swallows
A murmuration of starlings
A exhaltation of larks
A watch of nightingales
A building of rooks
Now it's your turn, do you know the plurality of the birds you own? If so please share it here.
RE: Bird's Plurality: Describing Groups of Birds - jenb128 - 02-26-2013
I have a cockatiel, but I've never been able to find any special name for a group of them. However, I have heard a "company of parrots." A couple more to add to the list:
A group of turkey vultures is usually called a "venue." If they are circling around in the air, they are a "kettle" (because the circling is reminiscent of bubbles in a kettle of boiling water). Sometimes, a group of vultures is also called a "wake", which I suppose it quite fitting, or a "committee."
A group of owls is called a "parliament" or a "wisdom."
RE: Bird's Plurality: Describing Groups of Birds - A0130 - 09-02-2013
Wow, I never knew any of that. The extent of my knowledge was "flock", haha. Do you know if there are any special named for groups of parrotlets or lovebirds? I think that would be a real treat.
I wonder where all these words came from. Who decided to call a bunch of nightingales a "watch"? How long have these been in use? Why don't people use them more often, I think they'd make a great addition to our vocabulary?