Birds

A guide to collective nouns for birds. Learn what to call groups of eagles, owls, geese, and more with their fascinating origins.

A Bazaar of Owls

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A group of owls is occasionally called a bazaar, one of the rarest and least-documented entries on any owl word list. Unlike “parliament,” “stare,” or “wisdom” — all of which have a clear, traceable rationale — “bazaar” shows up mainly on general collective-noun reference lists without a well-established behavioral or symbolic explanation specific to owls. … Read more

What Animals Form a Bazaar?

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📖 Collective Noun Lookup What Animals Form a Bazaar? A word for a crowded, noisy marketplace — the defining name for one cliff-nesting seabird, and a rare footnote for another bird entirely. 💬 “Bazaar” is a collective noun for guillemots and, more rarely, owls. For guillemots — dense, noisy seabirds that pack cliff ledges by … Read more

A Wisdom of Owls

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A Wisdom of Owls cartoon showing a group of scholarly owls running an outdoor advice panel and recommending that important decisions be made at 3 a.m.

A group of owls is occasionally called a wisdom, one of the rarer entries on owl word lists — far less common in practice than “parliament,” but the most literal of all the owl collective nouns. It leans directly on the bird’s long-standing reputation as a symbol of wisdom and judgment, an association stretching back … Read more

A Stare of Owls

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Cartoon animals struggling to hold a heavy Placeholder Image sign while a bird prepares to land on top.

A group of owls perched together is sometimes called a stare, a more specific alternate to the far more famous “parliament.” Where “parliament” gets used loosely for owls in general, “stare” is the term reserved for owls actually sitting together — a nod to their eerie, unblinking, forward-facing gaze. Bonus fact: many owl species have … Read more

A Parliament of Owls

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Cartoon illustration of owls sitting in a parliament chamber representing the collective noun “a parliament of owls”

A group of owls is called a parliament, one of the best-known and most-loved collective nouns in English. Unlike many collective nouns from the historic hunting tradition, this one didn’t originate in the 15th-century Book of Saint Albans — it’s a later literary coinage that leans on owls’ ancient reputation as symbols of wisdom, an … Read more

What Animals Form a Parliament?

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📖 Collective Noun Lookup What Animals Form a Parliament? A word borrowed straight from government, given to two birds whose gatherings sound like a debate nobody’s winning. 💬 “Parliament” is a collective noun for owls and rooks — the single best-known collective noun in English for one of them, and a genuinely old hunting-tradition term … Read more