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.