Ornithological nouns of assemblage:

• a murmuration of starlings
• a desert of lapwing
• a parliament of owls
• a gulp of cormorants
• a pitying of doves
• a murder of crows
• an exaltation of larks
• a charm of finches
• a stand of flamingoes
• a watch of nightingales
• a rafter of turkeys
• a committee of vultures
• a descent of woodpeckers
• an unkindness of ravens
• a convocation of eagles

Who comes up with these? They’re wonderfully poetic. Also: a sleuth of bears, a shrewdness of apes, a flutter of butterflies, an intrusion of cockroaches, a bask of crocodiles, a skulk of foxes, a smack of jellyfish, a leap of leopards, a crash of rhinoceroses, a scurry of squirrels, a streak of tigers, a shiver of sharks.