🐦 Birds · Collective Nouns
What Is a Group of Cormorants Called?
A diving seabird with wings that don’t quite repel water — and a colony habit that’s earned it two very different collective nouns.
A group of cormorants is called a flight (in the air) or, more distinctively, a gulp — a nod to their habit of swallowing fish whole after a dive. Cormorants are highly social, nesting and roosting together in dense colonies along coasts, rivers, and lakes.
What Is a Group of Cormorants Called?
On the water or in a colony, gulp is the term most specifically tied to cormorants, referencing how they swallow fish head-first and whole after surfacing from a dive. Flight is the more generic term used for cormorants (and several other birds) while airborne.Where Did the Name Come From?
“Gulp” is a rare example of a collective noun that describes an actual, observable behavior rather than a symbolic or literary flourish — anyone who’s watched a cormorant surface with a fish and throw its head back to swallow understands the name instantly. “Flight,” by contrast, is one of the broader, functional terms that appears across the venery-term tradition traced to the 15th-century Book of Saint Albans (1486), applied to many birds simply for the act of flying together.Cormorant Facts
- Not waterproof: Unlike ducks, cormorant feathers aren’t fully waterproofed with oil, which is why they’re so often seen perched with wings spread wide to dry — a trade-off that makes them less buoyant and better divers.
- Diving ability: Can dive over 100 feet and stay submerged for a minute or more while pursuing fish underwater.
- Colonial nesters: Cormorants breed in large, dense colonies, sometimes alongside herons and egrets, often reusing the same nesting sites year after year.
- Fishing partnership: In parts of China and Japan, cormorant fishing is a centuries-old tradition where trained birds catch fish for handlers, historically restrained by a neck ring to prevent swallowing the largest catches.
- Diet: Almost entirely fish, caught by underwater pursuit rather than surface skimming.
- Range: Found on nearly every continent except Antarctica, in both marine and freshwater habitats.
Example Sentences
- A gulp of cormorants lined the breakwater, wings spread to dry after a morning of diving.
- The flight of cormorants crossed the bay low and fast, heading for the fishing grounds.
- Fishermen in the region still practice the old craft of cormorant fishing, working closely with a trained gulp of birds.
Other Names for a Group of Cormorants
Gulp is the standout, behavior-specific term and the one most worth remembering. Flight covers the same generic ground it does for many other birds and doesn’t say much specifically about cormorants.🧠 Test Your Cormorant Knowledge
Three quick questions. See what stuck.1. What is the more behavior-specific collective noun for cormorants?
2. Why do cormorants perch with wings spread wide?
3. What historical fishing tradition involves trained cormorants?