Collective nouns for birds
Any group of birds is a flock. Many birds also have names of their own: a murder of crows, a parliament of owls, a murmuration of starlings
Most come from hunting manuals of the 1400s, written partly as word play. Below: every name we know of, and the story behind the best ones.
Most looked up
From search, Sep 2026Every bird, A to Z
32 birds- Goldfinches
- a charm
- Herons
- a siege
- Jays
- a party, a scold
- Lapwings
- a deceit
- Larks
- an exaltation
- Rooks
- a building, a parliament
- Snipe
- a wisp
- Starlings
- a murmuration
- Vultures
- a committee (perched), a kettle (circling), a wake (feeding)
- The full guide: a group of vultures
- Woodcock
- a fall
The stories behind them
Where the names come from
Many were first written down in 15th-century books on hunting and manners, as “terms of venery”. The best known is the Book of St Albans (1486). Knowing them was a mark of good breeding.
Are they real?
Some were used in the field; many were jokes or showing off and were never common speech. Birders today mostly say “flock”. A few, like a murmuration of starlings and a skein of geese, are in everyday use.
Why some birds have two
Some depend on what the birds are doing: geese are a gaggle on the ground and a skein in the air; vultures are a committee perched, a kettle circling and a wake at a carcass.