Most birders know some of the collective names of birds such as a murder of crows, a skein of Canada Geese, a charm of goldfinches.  Sue McGrath, who leads bird walks in the Newburyport, MA area, recently published a humorous listing of some of the terms she uses in the field:

A hood of robins

A litter of catbirds

A tanning of bronzed cowbirds

A lamentation of mourning warblers

A lettering of scarlet tanagers

An oxidation of rusty blackbirds

A chain of bobolinks

A ridicule of mockingbirds

An alphabet of jays

A maniac of ravens

A Ulysses of brant

An 8×10 of glossy ibis.

A shishkebab of skuas

A drift of snow geese

A timber of wood ducks

An outfield of flycatchers

A glimmer of Northern flickers

A wave of surf scoters

An asylum of common loons

A brass of horned grebes

A tart of American bitterns

An illusion of merlins

An applause of clapper rails

A dune of sandhill cranes

A haze of purple sandpipers

A garage sale of juncos

A w.c. fielding of chickadees

A pilot of palm warblers

A range of ovenbirds

A paddling of red-tails

A hangover of red-eyed vireos

A derby of Kentucky warblers

A fifth of wild turkeys…