A Murder of Crows

My daughter is confused. She woofs when she sees a bird. She also woofs at horses, pigs, lambs, chickens, and any other mammal. For awhile she woofed whenever she was asked ANY question. We must have said, "Elena, what does the dog say?" so frequently that she thought a questioning inflection meant we wanted her to bark.

Just this week on our walk, we saw birds. Not a friendly, gently flapping mockingbird, or dove. Although, we often see these too. No. Instead, we saw a literal flock and a half of birds flying in the air and perched all over a bunch of trees. It felt like Alfred Hitchcock's movie. It was loud and scary. Of course they were crows and it was dusk, which made it that much more foreboding. Do you know what a group of crows is called? It's called a murder. A murder of crows...Isn't that so cheery? I, for one, have always preferred an exaltation of larks or a parliament of owls.

Original Artwork by Kristen Gill (that's Kiki to you)

Postscript: These group terms, called venery, are those imaginative collective nouns that evolved in the Middle Ages...here's a more complete list, if you are interested:

A bevy of quail

A bouquet of pheasants [when flushed]

A brood of hens

A building of rooks

A cast of hawks [or falcons]

A charm of finches

A colony of penguins

A company of parrots

A congregation of plovers

A cover of coots

A covey of partridges [or grouse or ptarmigans]

A deceit of lapwings

A descent of woodpeckers

A dissimulation of birds

A dole of doves

An exaltation of larks

A fall of woodcocks

A flight of swallows [or doves, goshawks, or cormorants]

A gaggle of geese [wild or domesticated]

A host of sparrows

A kettle of hawks [riding a thermal]

A murmuration of starlings

A murder of crows

A muster of storks

A nye of pheasants [on the ground]

An ostentation of peacocks

A paddling of ducks [on the water]

A parliament of owls

A party of jays

A peep of chickens

A pitying of turtledoves

A raft of ducks

A rafter of turkeys

A siege of herons

A skein of geese [in flight]

A sord of mallards

A spring of teal

A tidings of magpies

A trip of dotterel

An unkindness of ravens

A watch of nightingales

A wedge of swans [or geese, flying in a "V"]

A wisp of snipe