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Bird's Plurality: Describing Groups of Birds - Printable Version

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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?