From a Murder of Crows to a Parliament of Owls: Strange Animal Group Names

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If you’ve ever called a group of animals a “bunch” and moved on with your life, this might change you forever. Somewhere out there, a group of crows is committing a murder, owls are holding a parliament, and flamingos are apparently hosting a flamboyance. Strange animal group names are one of those delightful corners of language that feel slightly unhinged but make a little sense.

Since many animals naturally stick together, humans have long tried to capture the vibes these groups give off using a mix of imagination and humor. Some names are poetic, some dramatic, and some feel like inside jokes that just stuck. Once you learn them, you can’t unlearn them — and you’ll never look at a gathering of birds, bugs, or beasts the same way again.

The History of Collective Nouns in Animalia

These delightfully creative words are not a modern internet invention. They’ve been around for centuries. Back in 1486, Dame Juliana Berners, a noblewoman-turned-nun, decided to publish The Book of Saint Albans. It was essentially a medieval hobby guide for gentlemen, which covered hunting, hawking, and heraldry. 

As a casual bonus, she included an appendix listing 165 names for groups of animals most frequently encountered in hunting. It was less a scientific classification and more of a nomenclature mischief that survived long enough to still delight and confuse people to this day. 

Land Mammals

Here’s a comprehensive list of what humans have been calling land animals when they gather in groups, so you can impress your friends the next time you’re at the zoo.

Aquatic Mammals

These water-loving mammals rely on both marine and freshwater habitats to survive, and they’ve evolved unique adaptations that help them thrive in each environment.

Animal	Group Name	Explanation
Dolphins	A pod	While dolphins are too big to be “peas in a pod”, they do form tight-knit groups called pods, typically ranging from a few individuals up to 30. Sometimes, they gather into superpods that can include hundreds or even thousands of dolphins.
Manatees	An aggregation	While manatees are usually solitary and don’t form permanent groups, they often form clusters in winter when seeking warm water.
Otters	A romp or raft	A romp means rough, playful action, which fits otters perfectly. Highly social and energetic, they wrestle, chase, and tumble together. When they float side by side on the water, the group is aptly called a raft.
Porpoises	A pod, school, herd, or turmoil	While school usually brings fish to mind, porpoises can also be called a school. Even more fun, they’re sometimes called a turmoil of porpoises because of their chaotic, constantly splashing behavior.
Whales	A pod, gam, or herd	Gam was a 19th-century term for two or more whaling ships gathered at sea, a term that whales naturally adopted for themselves.

Birds

Birds are highly social creatures, often gathering in flocks for safety and to conserve energy, especially while flying. 

Animal	Group Name	Explanation
Birds in general	A volery	The word comes from the Latin volare, meaning “to fly,” and perfectly captures the magic of a flock of birds soaring together through the sky.
Bitterns	A sedge	Bitterns rely on the grass-like plants called sedges, which make up the marshland vegetation in their habitat. They camouflage among the reeds and stand as if frozen and part of the backdrop.
Buzzards	A wake	In America, ‘buzzard’ is an informal term for a vulture, which fits their scavenging habits. They often gather around carcasses as if holding a solemn wake. This term is mainly used when they assemble at a feeding site or perched in large, watchful groups. In Europe and Asia, a buzzard is actually a type of hawk — a true bird of prey, not a scavenger.
Bobolinks	A chain	These tiny birds are often seen chasing each other while perching in neat rows.
Chicken	A brood	The term originates from broody hens, which are mother chickens sitting on their eggs to incubate them.
Chicks	A clutch, chattering, or peep	A clutch is the nestful of eggs that, once hatched, turn into a nonstop chatterbox squad with their constant “peep-peep” calls.
Coots	A cover or commotion	These medium-sized water birds gather in large, dense groups on the water, so packed that thousands of them can seem to cover the entire surface. Their gregarious, sometimes aggressive gatherings are enough to cause a real commotion!
Cormorants	A gulp	Cormorants don’t have teeth, so they’ve developed a unique feeding style — they catch fish and swallow them whole in a single, impressive gulp.
Crane	A sledge or siege	Cranes are exceptionally noisy birds, and when thousands gather, the sound can be overwhelming. It’s almost like they’ve just sieged a town during migration.
Crows	A murder, horde, or mob	While they aren’t truly criminal-minded, medieval superstition gave these black birds a reputation for death and associated them with battlefields and graveyards. When they gather, they form an unruly, mischievous crowd.
Dotterel	A trip	Migrating dotterels are like birds on a road trip. They form temporary groups at stopovers to feed before continuing to their high-altitude breeding grounds.
Doves	A dule, pitying	Dule comes from the French word ‘deuil’, meaning deep sorrow or grief, and is the collective noun for the American mourning dove. Meanwhile, pitying is a poetic 15th-century term for a group of turtle doves, inspired by their soft, melancholic cooing.
Ducks	A brace, team, skein, flock, raft, paddling, waddling, or badling	Ducks boast a surprisingly long list of group names. A brace refers to two ducks — a hunting term for a pair of bagged game. In the sky, when flying in synchronized V-formation, they’re called a team for their coordinated effort. On the water, they form a raft, and when actively swimming, they paddle.  As for badling? It doesn’t mean they’re misbehaving. It’s simply an archaic malapropism of paddling that waddled its way into the language.
Eagles	A convocation, or soar	Eagles are mostly solitary and pair for life, so when they gather near abundant food sources or huddle together at winter roosts to conserve body heat, it feels less like a crowd and more like a grand meeting. In the air, they soar in reverence.
Emus	A mob	These large flightless birds roam in nomadic groups, and with their dinosaur-like build, dagger-sharp claws, and powerful kicks, they’re an intimidating sight. They even have a tongue-in-cheek history of defeating the Australian military, making them a truly formidable bunch.
Falcons	A cast, kettle, or bazaar	These hunting birds were once cast from a falconer’s glove. Now it means two or more falcons. When they spiral skyward in a tight, swirling formation, they form a kettle. They’re called a bazaar in a nod to the Falcon Souq of the Middle East, where these prized birds have long been bought, sold, and traded.
Finches	A charm	The term likely comes from the Middle English word ‘chirme’, meaning a chattering or chirping noise. But with their tiny, colorful bodies and lively personalities, it’s easy to see why people call them a charm.
Flamingos	A flamboyance, stand, or colony	Their striking pink and elegant stance makes every gathering a true flamboyance.
Geese	A flock, gaggle, or skein	These large waterfowl are called a gaggle thanks to the loud, chaotic honking they produce on the ground. But when they take to the sky in a graceful V-formation, they become a skein.
Grouse	A covey or pack	A covey is a 14th-century hunting term for game birds that now refers to a breeding pair and their young. These chicken-like birds often gather in packs during fall and winter, banding together as the seasons turn colder.
Hawks	A cast, kettle, or boil	The term cast comes from medieval falconry, when two birds were released from the glove to hunt, and it has since come to mean a pair of birds. When they spiral in the sky, they’re called a kettle or a boil.
Herons	A sedge or siege	These marsh-dwellers hide in sedges, and when grouped, they stand still like a besieging army.
Jays	A party or a scold	Jays are notoriously loud and boisterous. They’re a party when together, and a scold when squawking at intruders as if angry.
Lapwings	A deceit	These clever birds are deceptive, and they use distracting behaviors to protect their ground-level nests.
Larks	An exaltation or ascension	Larks are known for singing in a soaring, upward pitch, as if lifting their voices and bodies.
Mallards	A sord or brace	Sord has 15th-century origins from ‘sourde’, derived from the Middle English ‘sorden’, meaning “to rise in flight.” On the ground, a group of mallards is called a sord because they haven’t taken to the air yet, while a brace refers to a pair — a term rooted in hunting.
Magpies	A tiding, tittering, gulp, mischief, parliament, or charm	Magpies have long been linked to good or bad tidings in Old British folklore. Their constant chattering earns them the nickname ‘tittering,’ like a lively debating parliament.  Gulp comes from their habit of quickly devouring food, and their love of shiny objects and playful tricks marks them as mischievous. Despite it all, their intelligence makes them truly charming creatures.
Nightingales	A watch	Their nocturnal singing keeps watch over the night.
Owls	A parliament of wisdom	With solemn faces and wise eyes, they seem to hold a council meeting.
Parrots	A pandemonium or company	These colorful chatterboxes bring chaos wherever they go. They’re highly social birds who live, travel, and forage in groups.
Partridges	A covey	The word comes from the Old French ‘covee’ and the Latin ‘cubare’, meaning “to sit, incubate, and hatch.” While it originally referred to a brood of chicks, it now also describes a tight-knit group of partridges.
Peacocks and peafowl	A muster or ostentation	Muster comes from the Old French word ‘mustier’, meaning to assemble. They gather to show off their extravagant feathers — a true display of ostentation.
Penguins	A colony, muster, or rookery	On land, they cluster together in rookeries like little waddling neighborhoods.
Pheasants	A nest, nide, nye, or bouquet	Pheasants are called nide or nye, from the French word ‘nid’, meaning “nest.” When these ground-nesters are disturbed and take flight, they’re called a bouquet, like petals scattering from a flower.
Pigeons	A flock, flight, ki,t or dropping	Numbers mean safety for pigeons, which is why they often congregate in groups. Well-trained birds are referred to as a kit, while city-dwelling pigeons are sometimes disparagingly called a dropping, thanks to the obvious mess they leave behind.
Plovers	A congregation or wing	Unlike many birds, plovers are relatively quiet when they gather on the ground. But when they take to the air, their group is called a wing.
Ptarmigans	A covey	Ptarmigans are ground-dwelling game birds, and their group name covey comes from mid-14th-century hunting terminology.
Rooks	A building	Rooks gather in treetops, building stick nests that look like small, crowded tenement houses.
Quails	A bevy or covey	Bevy comes from the Middle English ‘bevey’, originally used for a large group of birds gathered to bathe or drink. Covey is another fitting term, since these are ground-dwelling birds that roost together.
Ravens	An unkindness or conspiracy	Ravens are painted as tricksters in mythology and literature. Their gatherings often look like secret meetings plotting mischief, or, for older European folklore, a symbol of death.
Snipes	A walk or wisp	On land, they’re called a walk, wandering through marshy wetlands. In flight, they become a wisp, zigzagging swiftly through the air. Fun fact — the term sniper actually comes from the skill of shooting these small, fast, and highly camouflaged birds.
Sparrows	A host	Sparrows are great entertainers when they engage in social singing and communal activities.
Starlings	A murmuration	The term murmuration refers to the sounds of thousands of wings fluttering together in flight when these birds showcase their massive synchronized aerial displays.
Storks	A mustering or phalanx	Muster has Old French roots, meaning “assembly,” while phalanx describes a military group. When they gather, they kind of resemble soldiers with their long legs and sharp beaks all lined up in still, orderly ranks.
Swans	A bevy, game, or wedge	Bevy carries poetic associations with beauty and grace — perfectly suited to the choreographed, ballet-like elegance of swans on water. When they fly, they form an aerodynamic V-shaped wedge. Meanwhile, the game nods to their history in hunting and, more likely, the once-elite pastime of managing swan populations as sport and spectacle.
Teals	A spring	Their sudden, darting movements in water look like a lively spring.
Turkeys	A gang, posse, or rafter	Gobblers — the adult males of these gregarious birds — form all-male groups and are often known for their aggressive displays. Rafter comes from their habit of sleeping perched in trees or high sheltered spots, such as the rafters or roof beams of barns.
Vultures	A venue or wake	Wherever there’s a feast, the vultures’ gathering spot becomes a grim venue fitting for a wake.
Woodcocks	A fall	It refers to the sudden, large-scale arrival of migratory woodcocks into a specific area during autumn. They also look like they’re tumbling out of the sky during their sky dance mating ritual.
Woodpeckers	A descent	A group of woodpeckers is called a “descent” because these birds typically land at the top of a tree and forage while moving downwards along the trunk, effectively descending.

Reptiles and Amphibians

Most of these cold-blooded creatures are solitary and territorial, so when they gather for breeding or hibernation, it’s truly a wild sight.

Animal	Group Name	Explanation
Alligators	A congregation	Alligators love to bask in warm spots in the summer, often appearing inanimate but watchful in their formal assembly.
Cobras	A quiver	It’s not about you quivering at the sight of them, though that might happen. Rather, when cobras gather and flare their hoods, they often shake in a rapid, energetic motion. They’re not scared. They’re issuing a warning.
Crocodiles	A bask or float	Like their alligator cousins, crocodiles love to sunbathe to regulate their cold bodies. When they’re in the water, don’t mistake them for floating logs. Watch closely for the telltale eyes and nostrils just above the surface.
Frogs	An army or colony	Large migrations of frogs, especially during breeding season, can appear overwhelming — thus an army, hopping en masse across landscapes. Colony reflects their tendency to gather densely in ponds and wetlands during mating periods.
Rattlesnakes	A rhumba, den, or pit	Rumba music feels incomplete without the signature maracas. Meanwhile, den or pit refers to their real-life winter hiding spots where thousands coil together for warmth.
Toads	A knot	Toads often cluster in tangled groups during breeding, forming what looks like a living knot of warty bodies.
Turtles	A bale, dole, flotilla, or nest	Bale or dole suggests a bundled grouping when they’re huddled together on the shore. Underwater, they’re a flotilla when they swim together for migration. Nest connects directly to their reproductive behavior, when multiple females return to the same beaches to lay eggs
Salamanders	A maelstrom or congress	Maelstrom means whirlpool, reflecting their chaotic gatherings where they swirl in tangled, slippery masses while breeding or hiding beneath damp cover. Also, fun fact — the word congress once referred to coming together or sexual union, which makes it an unexpectedly fitting term for animals gathered during mating season.
Snakes and vipers	A nest or knot	Snakes in general gather in a nest for warmth during colder seasons, coiling together in shared dens to conserve heat. With their long bodies, they often become entangled when competing for a mate during mating season or during territorial disputes.

Fish

Fish are an incredibly diverse group of cold-blooded aquatic animals that inhabit oceans, rivers, lakes, and streams worldwide. There are more than 33,000 recognized species of fish, outnumbering all other vertebrates — mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles combined!

Animal	Group Name	Explanation
Fish in general	A school, shoal, run, haul, catch, or draft	A school isn’t an educational institution for fish. It comes from the Middle Dutch word ‘schole’, meaning “crowd.” It refers to a coordinated group, usually of a single species, swimming together. A shoal, in contrast, is a looser, mixed-species group that gathers for safety in numbers.  When fish migrate, it’s called a run, like a salmon run.  Terms like haul, catch, and draft refer to the total number of fish caught by fishermen.
Goldfish	A troubling or glint	While goldfish are often labeled “beginner fish,” they can actually be tricky to raise and require high-maintenance tanks. Still, they’re worth the effort. Their shiny scales glint beautifully in the light.
Herring	An army	Herring is derived from the German word ‘heer’, which literally means army.
Minnows	A steam	While Southeast Asian cuisines often steam minnows with fresh herbs and spices, steam is simply a collective term uniquely used for these tiny fish
Sharks	A frenzy or shiver	When multiple sharks aggressively compete over a large prey source, it can erupt into a feeding frenzy — a spine-tingling spectacle for anyone watching.
Stingrays	A fever	No, manta rays don’t gather because they’re sick. The term actually refers to the fever pitch of activity that’s intensely chaotic when thousands come together for mating or feeding.
Trouts	A hover	Trout often appear to hover or float just above the riverbed when they are stationary.

Insects and Other Bugs

All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs. Bug describes a wide variety of creepy crawlies.

What makes an insect, then? They need a three-part body, six jointed legs, and an exoskeleton made of chitin. There’s no known number of how many insects there are in the world right now, but astonishingly, there are roughly 1.4 billion insects for every person in the world!

Animal	Group Name	Explanation
Ants	A colony or army	Ants live in highly organized societies with roles such as egg-laying queens, mating males, workers, foragers, and soldiers.
Bees	A grist, hive, or swarm	Grist is an Old English word for grain to be ground at a mill, which connects to the old belief that it draws insects. The idea is later linked to bees, even though they feed mainly on nectar and pollen. When a hive becomes overcrowded, bees swarm like a dark cloud to find a new home.
Butterflies	A kaleidoscope or flutter	Kaleidoscope perfectly captures their collective fluttering flight that shimmers and shifts in motion.
Caterpillars	An army	When caterpillars move in large numbers across vegetation, they can resemble a marching army, slowly but steadily advancing in coordinated swarms.
Cockroaches	An intrusion	Cockroaches are infamous for appearing suddenly and in unwanted places, so a group of them is aptly called an intrusion.
Dragonflies	A flight or cluster	Dragonflies often patrol water surfaces in groups. Flight captures them in motion above ponds, while clusters reflect how they perch together on reeds and grasses.
Flies	A business, cloud, swarm, or hatch	Flies are busy bodies, buzzing and darting about constantly. When they gather in large numbers, they form a dark, hovering cloud. They’re also called a hatch, referring to their synchronized emergence when thousands emerge from their nymphal casing and take flight simultaneously.
Gnats	A cloud or horde	Male gnats typically rise in thick clouds above breeding sites and can be so dense they resemble a small airborne horde.
Grasshoppers	A cluster	Grasshoppers can cluster together in vegetation.
Hornets	A bike or nest	Hornets are busy, social creatures with no time for a leisurely ride. The term bike actually comes from Old English, meaning “colony.” These insects build paper-like nests, maintaining a bustling communal home.
Ladybugs	A loveliness	This adorable name comes from their charming, harmless appearance, even when their bright red-spotted shells gather together.
Lice	A flock or infestation	Though tiny, lice are often found together on a host like a tiny flock, clustering across hair or feathers. These parasitic insects produce as many as eight eggs a day over their lifetimes.
Locusts	A plague or cloud	Locust plagues are among the oldest recorded agricultural disasters, and when they gather in massive swarms that darken skies and decimate crops.
Mosquitoes	A scourge	Mosquitoes remain the world’s deadliest animal, threatening over 40% of the global population — a reflection of the immense suffering they cause.
Moths	An eclipse	When large numbers of moths cluster around lights or vegetation, they can literally blot out the light, like an eclipse.
Scorpions	A nest or bed	Scorpions often shelter together under rocks or crevices, forming a nest or bed of intertwined stingers.
Spiders	A cluster or clutter	Spiders may be solitary, but when grouped, they form a tangled cluster or clutter of legs and webs.
Termites	A brood	An entire colony is essentially a family unit originating from the same parents — the queen and king — that produces offspring that become workers and soldiers.
Wasps	A pledge	While most wasps are solitary insects, there remain about 1,000 species of social wasps, including the deadly hornets and venomous yellow jackets. Pledge is derived from Middle English ‘plege’ and suggests a colony bound together by community — fitting for wasps in a shared hive.

Other Invertebrates

Invertebrates are animals that lack a backbone or bony skeleton. If you’re not familiar with them, just know that over 90% of all animals belong to this group — from insects and snails to earthworms burrowing in the soil, and even colorful sea stars, squid, and clams in the ocean.

Animal	Group Name	Explanation
Snails	A hood, escargatoire, walk, or rout	A collection of snails is called a hood, perhaps whimsically inspired by the way their shells seem to cloak them like tiny hoods. The playful term escargatoire comes from the French word escargot, meaning snail, and refers to a huddled grouping.  A rout describes them when they’re scattered and disorderly. They’re also called a walk, since snails move on a single muscular foot — though it looks more like they’re slowly gliding or crawling along on their bellies.
Clams	A bed	Clams live partially buried together beneath sand or mud along the seabed.
Crabs	A consortium	A consortium suggests a formal association or alliance. Crabs often gather in large numbers for molting, feeding, or migration, moving sideways in coordinated masses that look surprisingly organized — almost like a joint enterprise.
Jellyfish	A bloom, fluther, smack, or brood	Bloom compares their sudden population explosions to flowers, the same way brood references their rapid reproduction.  As they drift through the water, jellyfish flutter and pulse. But swim through a swarm, and you might receive a sharp smack from their stinging tentacles.
Lobsters	A risk, pod	While the technical group name for lobsters is a pod, they’re also called a risk. It could be a nod to their vulnerability during molting, when they’re soft and exposed. Perhaps it refers to the dangers of lobster fishing in rough, cold seas, or simply because of their powerful crusher claws.
Oysters	A bed	Like clams, oysters attach themselves to hard surfaces in dense colonies known as oyster beds.
Squid	A squad or shoal	More people are playfully clamoring for squid to be called a squad. While the nickname has stuck with some, the proper collective term is a shoal, reflecting how they move together in tight, synchronized formations.
Seastars	A galaxy	A galaxy of seastars is a poetic nod to their star-shaped bodies. When many gather, their forms resemble a constellation spread across the ocean floor.

Other Organisms

Animals aren’t the only ones with unique collective nouns. One specific microorganism has one, too.

Organism	Group Name	Explanation
Bacteria	A colony or culture	Bacteria are fascinating microorganisms. Invisible to the naked eye, they form colonies that originate from a single parent cell and reproduce into a thousand other cells. When grown deliberately in a lab on a Petri dish, this population is called a culture.

Strange Names for Stranger Behaviors

From fun caravans and parades to eerie murders and wakes, these strange names for groups of animals capture the behavior, folklore, and pure whimsy of these creatures. These quirky names remind us that language can be as playful and mysterious as nature itself. It turns ordinary gatherings of animals into stories, metaphors, and little windows into the way humans have long observed the wild.