COLLECTIVELY SPEAKING

We all know of the “murder of crows”  and “exaltation of larks.”  Flock is accurate but so general.  There are many fine avian collective nouns flying about in English.

Here are some of my favorites, and suggestions for improvement:

Boblink: chain [get it?  pun on link…hey, I didn’t make this up]
Coot: cover [especially apt when coots are covering the surface of your local sewer ponds in winter]
Cormorant: gulp  [nothing fishy about this one]
Duck: raft, plump, paddling
Dunlin:  fling [so accurate when they are seen in the air]
Eagle: convocation [gives them way too much dignity, a lurk, attack or scavenge might be better]
Jackdaws: clattering [this city-dwelling Euro-corvid is best seen in groups clattering about the rooftops of old town or across Gothic cathedrals]
Mallard: flush, sord, puddling
Ravens: unkindness [Totally misses their co-operative intelligence; I would suggest alliance, conspiracy, clan.   This collective comes from the…