Colorful descriptions for common birds
October 6, 2007
Steve Grinley

     A while back, I shared with you a list of venereal terms for groups of birds such as a “charm of goldfinches” or a “murder of crows.” Recently, on one of the birding listserves, some lists of fun descriptions have appeared. I’ve selected my favorites to share with you today:

A hood of robins

A litter of catbirds

A ridicule of mockingbirds

A nebula of starlings

An alphabet of jays

A maniac of ravens

A garagesale of juncos

A w.c. fielding of chickadees

A frankincense of murres

A suite of bitterns

An album of rock wrens

An outfield of flycatchers

A tankful of petrels

A Ulysses of brant

An 8×10 of glossy ibis.

A shishkebab of skuas

A coronation of emperor geese

A drift of snow geese

A timber of wood ducks

A wave of surf scoters

An asylum of common loons

A brass of horned grebes

A triangle of Bermuda petrels

A tart of American bitterns

An illusion of merlins

An hilarity of laughing gulls

An applause of clapper rails

A dune of sandhill cranes

A haze of purple sandpipers

A ladle of spoonbills

A mint of Franklin’s gulls

A glimmer of Northern flickers

An oxymoron of greater pewees

A tickle of ivory gulls

A dagwood of Sandwich terns

A workshop of elf owls

A pilot of palm warblers

A range of ovenbirds

A tinkling of Bell’s vireos

A hangover of red-eyed vireos

A derby of Kentucky warblers

A fifth of wild turkeys

A tanning of bronzed cowbirds

A lamentation of mourning warblers

A lettering of scarlet tanagers

An oxidation of rusty blackbirds

A chain of bobolinks

And my personal favorite: A paddling of red-tails.

Steve Grinley
Bird Watcher’s Supply & Gift
Route 1 Traffic Circle
194 Route 1
Newburyport, MA 01950
BirdWSG@Comcast.net 
978-462-0775 
www.birdwatcherssupplyandgift.com 
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