Collective nouns and terms for groups of animals other groups including birds.

TERMS FOR GROUPS OF
ANIMALS, BIRDS AND INSECTS

ANIMAL/SPECIES

COLLECTIVE NOUN/TERM

A
COLONY of ants.

Melissa Bee

An
ARMY
of ants.

A
STATE
or SWARM of
ants.

APES

A SHREWDNESS
of apes

ASSES

A HERD or
PACE
of asses

A
DROVE
of asses.

 Michael
Haberl

A
FLANGE of baboons

Judith Rich

A CONGRESS
of baboons.

John Provost

Ron Orts

A
CULTURE
of bacteria.                                        

Chris Moffatt

BADGERS

A CETE of badgers

Melissa Bee.

Melissa Bee.

A CLOUD
of bats.

Keith Harris

BEARS

A SLOTH or
SLEUTH
of bears

BEES

A GRIST, HIVE, SWARM, DRIFT or BIKE
of bees

A
CLUSTER, ERST
or NEST of bees.

BIRDS

A FLOCK, FLIGHT, or PARCEL
of birds.
A POD of
birds (small flock)
A VOLARY of
birds (in an aviary)
A BRACE = a
pair of gamebirds or waterfowl *

* Melissa Bee.

A
DISSIMULATION
of birds.

Phillip Joss

Melissa Bee.

BOAR (WILD)

A SOUNDER or
SINGULAR
of wild boar

Melissa Bee.

Just in case there is anyone else out
there who, like me, doesn’t know what a Bobolink is I have been
reliably informed by Amelia B., that it
is a small bird.  The male is black and white with a yellow cap
on his head and the female is golden brown with brown markings.

Another name for a bobolink is a
whippoorwill***
(their call sounds a little like someone saying the word
whippoorwill).

Thanks to
Eric Pittenger for this additional information.

***
Apparently this is not the case.

Clarice
Olle has been kind enough to point out that the above is in fact
incorrect.

A bob-o-link (short for Robert
of Lincoln) is NOT the same bird as a whippoorwill.

John Canepa as
also provided the following information:

Bobolinks and whippoorwills
are two different birds. The bobolink is a small-medium size bird
dwelling in open fields where it makes its nest on the ground and has
one of the most amazing and hysterical songs ever. The whippoorwill
is a medium size bird, active at night, with plumage so as that you
practically step on them as they rest on the forest floor. An
interesting note about the whippoorwill is that they will come to rest
in a circle, with their tails all facing in so that they can be
protected from danger.

Susan
Vanderveen also confirms – I respectively submit
the information that a Bobolink and Whip-poor-will are not two terms for
one bird. They are two very distinct species.

A
BRACE OR CLASH of bucks.                      

Michael Haberl

I was looking at your
wonderful list of animal collectives for my website (everbosity.wordpress.com)
and came across the use of “brace”
several times, firstly under birds. A brace is a pair of anything and
not specifically related to any animal. A player can score a brace
of goals in a football match for example. I wouldn’t consider it a
collective title.

Tench
Ringgold

BUFFALO

A HERD, TROUP, GANG or OBSTINACY
of buffalo

Christina Gonzales

A
FLUTTER
of butterflies.

Priscilla Weikert 

A RAINBOW
of butterflies.

Amy Black

Melissa Bee

Melissa Bee

A
CLOWDER
of cats.    (sent in by Paul Chapin)
A POUNCE of
cats.
A KINDLE, LITTER OR INTRIGUE
(for kittens)

Melissa
Bee 

A
CLUTTER of cats.

A
COMFORT of cats.

Gary Goldring

A
CHOWDER
of cats.

Amy Black

A COLONY
of cats (usually wild cats)

Jennifer Bradley

CATTLE

A HERD, DROVE or DRIFT
of cattle.
A MOB of
cattle (US and Australia*)

*John Slay

“Cattle” refers to both male and female cows.

Gwendolyn Cannon

Gwendolyn Cannon suggests that ‘Cattle’ refers to both male and female
cows. You must be joshing me Gwendolyn. There is no such thing as a male
cow ! He’s either a “Bull” or a “steer/Ox”. I’ll bet you did that on
purpose just to see how many responses you get, didn’t you ?

Donald Gillis

Additional Clarification

Although Donald is, of course, correct, in defence
of Gwendolyn I think she was using the term ‘cow’ colloquially as it is
quite difficult to think of a
term which covers both sexes (hence the use of the term ‘cattle’ in
the first place.

According to
Oxford Dictionaries – the definition of ‘cattle’ is ‘large ruminant
animals with horns and cloven hoofs, domesticated for meat or milk, or
as beasts of burden; cows and oxen.’

Another term for male cattle is ‘bullock’.  A
bullock is a male domestic bovine animal that has been castrated and is
raised for beef.

Lisa Ashley Mayock

CHICKEN

A BROOD, CLUTCH,
flock, run or PEEP
of chicken

 Michael
Haberl

Clyde Hogendobler

Michael Haberl

Melissa Bee

*Melissa Bee

*Melissa Bee

Patricia
Ellistone

A
KINE*
of cows (12 cows are a FLINK)

Michael Haberl

* This term is not widely used
these days and is considered archaic by some.

“Kine” refers to only female cows (like a dairy herd).
“Cattle” refers to both male and female cows.

Gwendolyn Cannon

SEE ALSO “CATTLE” above for other terms.

A ROUT
of coyotes       

Bud Stockwell

Kristen Reece

A CAST
of crabs

C. MacIntire

***For
your information, a bushel of crabs is what you call it if you are
buying crabs to eat. Bushel is the measurement of how many you will buy
(i.e. Half a bushel, two bushels). Its like buying meat in pounds at the
deli. eaten. I believe a group of live crabs is called a cast.

Steve Miller has also pointed out that
it is incorrect to apply this label to certain specific species e.g.
a bushel of crabs as you could equally have a bushel of corn.

CRANES

A HERD, SEIGE or
SEDGE* of cranes

* fMelissa Bee

Michael Haberl

A

STRIKER
(unconfirmed)                                                   

Mike Paget

A
HOVER,
MUSTER, or
PARCEL
of crows.

A
MURDER of crows         

Jill
Dobbs,  Rachael  Blomeley and anon.

A HORDE of
crows.                                            

Melissa Bee 

A
PARLIAMENT
of crows.

Jill Dean

CUBS

A LITTER of cubs

CURLEW

A HERD of curlew

Michael Haberl

DEER

ROE DEER

A HERD, LEASH or MOB
of deer

A
BEVY
of roe deer.
                

Melissa Bee

DOGS

A PACK (wild dogs) or KENNEL
of dogs
A COWARDICE
of curs.
)
A LITTER of
puppies.                                              

 Melissa Bee   

Audrie Dugger 

Melissa Bee

& Michael
Haberl

Melissa Bee

Apparently a Dotterel is a rare plover
of upland areas of Eurasia.

Thanks to
Linwood Lyons for supplying this useful information.

DOVES

A FLIGHT,
DULE
or DOLE of doves.
A PITYING of
turtle doves.                       

Melissa Bee

A
PLAGUE of doves

Jay Johnson

DUCKS

A RAFT, PADDLING or BUNCH
of ducks on water.
A TEAM,
BRACE, BED, FLIGHT OR FLOCK* of wild ducks in
flight.

Melissa Bee

A
BADLING of ducks.

Gordon Potts

I was looking at your wonderful list of animal collectives for my
website (everbosity.wordpress.com) and came across the use of
“brace”
several times, firstly under birds. A brace is a pair of anything and
not specifically related to any animal. A player can score a brace of
goals in a football match for example. I wouldn’t consider it a
collective title.

Tench
Ringgold

DUNLINS

A FLING of dunlins

 Mike Field

John Beumer

A
SEETHING
of eels.

David
Thomson

ELEPHANTS

A HERD or
PARADE*
of elephants          

*also Raila and Jon Foley

A
CRASH
of elephants.                     

Susan Walsh

ELK

A HERD of elk.
A GANG of
elk (US)

Michael Haberl

( Clyde
Hogendobler, Phillip Joss & Brian Schott)

A
BUSYNESS
of ferrets.

 Angus
Mackintosh

Other
spellings of this term can be see at

https://www.all-about-ferrets.com/collective-noun-for-ferrets.html

FINCHES

A CHARM of finches

FISH

A SHOAL,
DRAFT, NEST, SCHOOL* of fish.
A RUN of
fish in motion.

* Melissa Bee

Melissa Bee

A FLAMBOYANCE
of flamingoes.

Kevin Yocum

FLIES

A CLOUD, HATCH, BUSINESS* or SWARM
of flies.

* Melissa Bee

Clyde Hogendobler

A CLOUD,
TROOP, or COMPANY
of foxes.
A LEASH OR EARTH
of foxes.*

* Melissa Bee

Luke Fewings

GEESE

A
GAGGLE or
FLOCK of geese.
A SKEIN, TEAM or WEDGE
of geese (in the air)
A PLUMP of geese (on water)

GIRAFFES

A
CORPS,
TROOP,

HERD  of giraffes.

A  TOWER
of giraffes.

 Melissa
Bee

A
KINDERGARTEN
of giraffes.

James Marohn

A
JOURNEY of giraffes.                                 

Raila and Jon Foley

A
KALEIDOSCOPE of giraffes

Jess
Gayner (via South African Game Ranger)

Melissa Bee

Andrew Davidson

GOATS

A FLOCK, HERD or TRIBE
of goats

A
TRIP
of goats (This is not one I have heard of before – thank you Lee
Lundberg)

Clyde Hogendobler

A WHOOP
of gorillas.

Several people have suggested a ‘flange’ of
gorillas as this was featured in Series 2, episode 5 of ‘Not The
Nine O’Clock News’ on the 28/04/1980 however, I feel
this actually puts the term in doubt as appears to be qualified by
Stephen Fry at:-

http://old.qi.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=8498&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15&sid=764b6eda4eab5327541dcc71faae5e12

Mark
Lyndon has commented as follows:-

In the sketch
you reference, Gerald makes it clear that this is in fact incorrect, and
that’s it’s a flange of baboons: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beCYGm1vMJ0 

Both “flange”
and “whoop” seem to be have been coined in that sketch btw: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ABaboon#%22Flange_of_baboons%22 

https://listverse.com/2012/01/24/11-words-with-surprising-derivations/ 

It’s debatable
whether or not they have become real collective nouns since then.

GROUSE

A PACK or COVEY of
grouse

Alexandra
Bylczynski

A
RASP
of guinea fowl.

Reginald
Hughes

Mike Holden

Melissa Bee

 

Margie and John 

Alexandra
Bylczynski

A
CAST,
KETTLE (flying in
large numbers) or BOIL
(two or more) of hawks.

 Melissa
Bee

* Melissa Bee

Melissa Bee

Jess Gayner
(via South African Game Ranger)

Elliot Eaton

Michael Haberl

Melissa Bee

HORSES

A STUD or
STRING
of horses (Breeding)
A TEAM,
HARRAS,
PAIR or
RAG
of horses (i.e. colts.)*
A FIELD, HERD, REMUDA,
SET
or STABLE of horses.

* Melissa Bee

HOUNDS

A PACK, KENNEL, MUTE or CRY
of hounds

Possibly
LEASH
of hounds (but cannot confirm this fact) 

John
Branda.

Richard
Sanborn BA, MA, JD

Melissa Bee

INSECTS

A SWARM of insects

Melissa Bee

KANGAROOS

A MOB or TROOP of
kangaroos

KITTENS

A
KENDLE,
KINDLE or LITTER of kittens.

 *Melissa Bee

LARKS

A BEVY of larks.
An EXALTATION
of larks.            

Elazar Friedman

An ASCENSION
of larks.

Michael
Haberl

Alex Dunkel

Clyde Hogendobler

LIONS

A PRIDE, FLOCK, SAWT, SOUSE, or TROOP
of lions.

A
SAULT of lions.

Alexandra
Bylczynski

* Melissa Bee

Elazar Friedman

* Melissa Bee

I was looking at your
wonderful list of animal collectives for my website
(everbosity.wordpress.com) and came across the use of
“brace”
several times, firstly under birds. A brace is a pair of anything and
not specifically related to any animal. A player can score a brace
of goals in a football match for example. I wouldn’t consider it a
collective title.

Tench
Ringgold

Michael Haberl

Melissa Bee   

A RICHESSE
of martens.      

Jayne Collins

Kristin Howard

Phillip Joss

Steve
Rundstrom

MONKEYS

A TROOP, CARTLOAD
or BARREL* of
monkeys

 *
Melissa Bee

                                                          
*  Melissa Bee

David Thomson

* Melissa Bee

A RAFT
of otters 

Donald Cheek.

Anonymous
contributor & Raila and Jon Foley

A STARE
or
WISDOM of owls.

Grant Schneider

A STUDY
of owls.                                  

Amelia B.

Melissa Bee

A DROVE or
HERD
of oxen
 

Michael Haberl

A SPAN*
of oxen 

Richard Bowen

*(I believe this may
refer to a team of two or more)

Clyde Hogendobler and Kristen Reece

*
Melissa Bee

PARTRIDGES

A COVEY of
partridges

*  Melissa Bee

A
PULCHRITUDE
of peacocks.  

* S. M. Steven.

Michael Haberl

Miranda

A
POD
or SCOOP of pelicans.

PENGUINS

A ROOKERY or
COLONY* of penguins

* Melissa Bee

PHEASANTS

A HEAD, NYE, NEST, , NIDE (BROOD)* or
BEVY
of pheasants.

 * Melissa Bee

A
BOUQUET
of pheasants (in flight)

Alexandra
Bylczynski

PIGEONS

A KIT of pigeons
(flying together)
A FLOCK or
FLIGHT
of pigeons.

Michael Haberl

I have been
advised by Terry West that this can also be
a “LOFT” of pigeons. I am,
however, a little nervous about this one as I know pigeons’ living
quarters are called a Loft.

You
question a ‘loft’ of pigeons because a loft may be a pigeon’s home. Many
creatures can be referred to in this way – cf. a dray of squirrels; and
I wonder if a cete of badgers is not, at heart, a ‘set’ of badgers.

Roger Whiteway

PIGS

A
HERD, TRIP or LITTER of pigs
A DRIFT,
DROVE,
SOUNDER (swine),
TEAM, PASSEL
(hogs)*

*  Melissa
Bee

PLOVERS

A STAND, WING OR CONGREGATION
of plovers

*  Melissa
Bee

PORPOISES

A HERD, SCHOOL or POD
of porpoises.

Ken

PTARMIGAN

A COVEY of
Ptarmigan

PUPS

A LITTER of pups

A
PUDDLE
of puppies

Sarah Smith 

QUAIL

A BEVY, DRIFT or
COVEY* of quail

                                                      
*  Melissa Bee

 
* Melissa Bee

A
TRACE
of rabbits.

Alexandra
Bylczynski

Several
people, including Lyle McNair, have submitted this term but it
has always been my understanding that ‘warren’ was the name given to the
network of interconnecting rabbit burrows in which rabbits live.

Collective
nouns are notoriously difficult to authenticate but during research,
although I could not find official clarification that warren is an
authentic collective noun, I have seen other references to its use so I
have decided to include it.

A
WARREN of rabbits.

Lyle has now sent me some
additional information regarding the use of the term “warren” as a
collective noun.

The “World English Dictionary” (accessible through

www.dictionary.com)
defines “warren” as “a colony of rabbits” and “colony” in a zoological
sense is further defined as “a group of the same type of animal or plant
living or growing together, especially in large numbers”.

Chris Lam

A
NURSERY of raccoons.

RACEHORSES

A STRING of
racehorses

Michael Haberl

A MISCHIEF
of rats.

Phil
Malia,

Michael Haberl.

A MURDER
of ravens.

Michelle Hellstern

A
CONSPIRACY of ravens.

Alex Baxter

Clyde Hogendobler)

Michael Haberl/ Raila and Jon Foley

Michael Haberl

A PARLIAMENT
of rooks.                                                                                          

Clayton Deathe

(a type of plankton found in lakes and
rivers)

Matt

RUFFS

A HILL of ruffs

Lindsay
Boe

Jason Murray

SEALS

A HERD, HAREM*, TRIP or ROOKERY*
of seals
A POD of
seals (a small herd)

* Tom Clarke has commented – “I
note that you list harem for seals. A harem usually refers to a group of
female seals who have been organized or collected by a single male for
breeding purposes.”

*
Leigh-Anne Kolasinski advises that the term “rookery” is normally
used for the place where seals give birth rather than as a collective
noun.

Another
term used for on land habitat of seals/sea lions is ‘haul-out’ but this
would not be used as a collective noun.

D. C. Reid.

I have noticed that
many of the collective nouns featured on the various pages do in fact
refer to the habitat rather than groups but these terms are notoriously
difficult to authenticate;  even the most prestigious dictionaries
do not feature them, presumably for that reason.  I am led to
believe, however, that the The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus
(ed. Maurice Waite, 2007) shows this term as being a collective noun.

Melissa Bee

SHEEP

A FLOCK, HERD, HIRSEL, PACK, DROVE* or
TRIP of sheep

*Courtesy of Melissa
Bee

A
MOB
of sheep (Australian)

Anthony Coates

Mary
Gutierrez 

David Milne

Melissa Bee

A BROOD
of snakes (a family group)  

Robert Richards

SNIPE

A WISP or WALK of
snipe

Steve

*  Melissa Bee

*
Laurel Parker has
pointed out –

“I believe the term “dray” of squirrels is
incorrect, since a dray is the name for a squirrel’s sleeping
quarters, and most of the time there is only one squirrel inhabiting
a dray. At most, a dray would house a litter (2-4 babies) plus mom
but that is only twice a year.

Squirrels do use a buddy system when they can
and pair or triple up for safety ( this is not their mates but often
siblings or two weaker members of a greater community will buddy for
strength in numbers).

Any way you look at it, a dray doesn’t hold much
of a group.”

I did some research on the
subject and the term “dray” does appear to be the popular
choice, however, like Laurel, experts say that as squirrels are
fairly solitary creatures there is probably no need for a collective
noun.

Elazar Friedman

A
MURMURATION
of starlings. 

Corrected
by Andrew Okulitch

A FILTH
of starlings

Wayne Bickley

A
CHATTERING of starlings.

Richard
Sanborn BA, MA, JD

AN
AFFLICTION
of starlings.

John Nanian

Ellie Foran &
Darryll Griffiths

Melissa Bee

SWALLOWS

A FLIGHT or GULP of
swallows

SWANS

A GAME, BANK, TEAM, HERD
or BEVY* of swans.

A WEDGE of swans in
the air.               

Melissa Bee

A
LAMENTATION of swans.

Michael Haberl

A
BALLET  of swans.

Tom

Michael Haberl

SWINE

A HERD,
DRIFT OR SOUNDER of swine

Summer
Robinson

Jim Arnosky’s book A
Kettle of Hawks and other wildlife groups

* 
Melissa Bee

Clyde Hogendobler

*  Melissa Bee

A CLUTCH *
of turkeys.                               

Anon

* I think this term
usually refers to the eggs e.g. “a clutch of eggs“

Melissa Bee

Clyde
Hogendobler

A
TURN of turtles. 

* Melissa Bee

Natalie
Stevens

A

BLESSING of unicorns.                      

 Jayne
Collins.

A
GLORY
of unicorns.

Brigitte
Wray-Miller (via Bruce Coville)

A SURPRISE
of unicorns.

Danielle W. (via Jane Yolen’s short story “The Boy Who Drew Unicorns”

The term ‘brood’ has been applied to vipers, most notably by Jesus
(Matthew 12:34, Matthew 23:33), but also by John the Baptist (Matthew
3:7, Luke 3:7). Whether or not this stands up to scrutiny and qualifies
as a precedent (given that neither of the two were scientists, nor were
the translators of the Bible) is, of course, up to you.

Indy Sambasivam

Kevin Yocum 

Alexandra
Bylczynski

WATERFOWL

A BUNCH, KNOB,
TRIP
or PLUMP* of
waterfowl

*  Melissa
Bee

**
Contributed by Dr Scott A McGinlay
BVMS MRCVS DVM

*Wayne Bickley

WHALES

A SCHOOL, HERD or GAM
of whales
A POD of
whales (small school)
A GRIND of
bottle nose whales

WIDGEON

A COMPANY or TRIP
of widgeon

WILDFOWL

A BUNCH, TRIP or PLUMP
of wildfowl.
A KNOB of
wildfowl (less than 30)

WOLVES

A PACK or ROUT of
wolves

Andy Williams

WRENS

A HERD of wrens

A
CHIME of wrens
Phillip Joss

*  Raila and Jon
Foley