While many of these nouns are complementary (i.e., the pride of lions), many are based on perceived qualities of groups that surely exaggerate both group characteristics and poetic license.īased on old folk tales, superstitions, and mythology, there are likely several different explanations for the origin of the term murder of crows ( 4).
#Flock of ravens how to
Related: 12 Tips on How to Attract Crows to Your Yard (2022) Why is it called a murder of crows?Įmerging during medieval times, and popularized by the nobility, many collective nouns are poetic and colorful in nature. When that large group, or flock, of a single species, is gathered, it is known by its poetic term, a murder of crows. Given that crows naturally congregate in large groups, just a few of them together would not normally be called murder since they are likely to gather in these larger groups. While we know two or three birds don’t constitute a flock, there is no set number of birds needed to call a group a flock, and it often depends on their social behavior ( 2). The most popular of these is known as a murder, but a group of crows can also be called a horde, mob, muster, or parcel. We’re used to using these words in a general sense, like a herd of sheep or the crew of a ship, but when it comes to birds, there are often specialized terms to describe the group.Ĭrows are social birds with tight-knight family structures that roost in huge numbers (often in the thousands), so what do you call a group of crows? While most people call a group of birds a flock, crows, in particular, have been known by a number of terms. So what do you call a flock of crows or a group of ravens, and where do these terms come from? Read on to find out not only what murder of crows is, but where the term originated from and other terms for groups of birds.Ĭollective nouns are the names given for groups or a collection of people or things. Many of these terms for groups date back to the Late Middle Ages, a time when handbooks were published for nobility and saying the wrong thing could be social suicide (1). Crows, as with many bird species, have a myriad of terms to describe a group. Murder, mob, or horde – what is a group of crows called? English can be a funny language, and with over 900 collective nouns, it’s bound to get confusing.
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