Inspired by our Conservation Officer Carl Cornish (thanks for the idea Carl) and following the taxonomy blog from last week, I thought I'd move onto collective nouns of birds and after some investigation, found some interesting ones – most of which I had never heard of.

So without further ado, here are some I found – all birds that you can find here at Langford....

Bittern – a sedge of bitterns (contributed by Carl) – also applies to herons

Bullfinch – a bellowing of bullfinches

Buzzard – a wake of buzzards

Cormorant – a gulp of cormorants

Coot – a covert of coots

Curlew – a herd of curlews

Dunlin – a fling of dunlins

Falcons – a cast of falcons

Jay – a scold of jays

Lapwing – a deceit or desert of lapwings

Mallard – a sord, flush or puddling of mallards

Moorhen – a plump of moorhens

Snipe – a wisp or walk of snipe

Swans – a wedge, drift or whiting of swans

Teal – a spring of teal

Woodpeckers – a descent of woodpeckers

Wren – a herd of wrens

And one you may know....the famous murmuration of starlings, but did you know that a group of starlings can also be known as a chatter or a cloud?

REFERENCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collective_nouns