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The compulsion to attach names to everything out there in the field seems to be imbedded in the birder's genes. Though having said that, it is kind of fun, and isn't that what the game is all about? In the winter '07 issue of Bird Tracks, published by our bird friends in San Luis, Ted and Bonnie Pope, proprietors of the Wild Birds Unlimited in San Luis, there is a short article from which we generously borrowed for this piece.
Don't just call it a flock or group the article implores, for there are many colorful terms available, many of which are listed in James Lipton's An Exaltation of Larks. The sources for these names are very old writings and appear to have come from old, maybe as early as the 15th century, bird books printed in England.
Except in migration, birds of prey seldom appear in numbers. If they did, it would seem a military term would be appropriate. But no, owls are called a parliament, hawks and falcons become a cast, while they may be also referred to as a kettle. Eagles are a convocation.
In your backyard, here in the Tehachapis, it is likely you'll see a charm of goldfinches. Looking for holes to store acorns, a descent of woodpeckers. A number of hummingbirds around your feeders are a charm, or may also be called, and more accurately, a hover. Most birders do not want a murmuration of starlings nesting in their Valley Oaks.
From the corvid family there are several representatives. A band of jays, an unkindness of ravens, or perhaps a murder of crows. Often seen in groups, yet not seen in these mountains, one more corvid — a tidings of magpies. Being just as raucous as their fellow family members, tiding is a bit of a misnomer.
The article called the next group, fowl. Well, ok. A brood of chickens or a peep. Geese come in a gaggle. A bouquet of pheasant is colorfully appropriate. A pitying of turtledoves (or maybe Eurasian Collared-Doves). Then there is the well-known covey or bevy of quail. Wild Turkeys come in a rafter.
Now to the shoreline where the peeps really are. A raft of loons, a puddling of mallards, a flight of cormorants, a squadron of pelicans, a ballet of swans, a spring of teal, a flamboyance of flamingos, or, a plump of waterfowl.
Most all very colorful, charming and fitting. So the next time we're in the field we'll watch for a raft of coots and a kettle of vultures, or, if we're on a pelagic, a pod of porpoise.
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