Feathered Friend Collectives

I've written about collective nouns for animals before. I've even set up a whole page for them on our website. Some are pretty mundane … a herd of cows, a flock of sheep or a pack of wolves. The ones that intrigue me the most, however, are the collective nouns for specific species of birds. Some of them are descriptive and others are off the wall. See what I mean.

helmeted guinea fowl

A confusion of guinea fowl

 

masked lapwings

A desert of lapwings

 

swallows

A gulp of swallows

 

american woodpecker

A descent of woodpeckers

 

jackal buzzard

A wake of buzzards

 

yellow eyed canary

An opera of canaries

 

emu

A mob of emus

 

albatross

A weight of albatross

 

broad billed sandpiper

A fling of sandpipers

 

ostriches

A wobble of ostriches

By the way, a great source of collective nouns for birds is New Zealand Birds.