These short-distance migrants spend the breeding season in Canada and winter in the southern states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, and a small section of Oklahoma. Even worse, you find them everywhere in North America except in the northernmost region of Antarctica, which means their destructive habits are widespread. Most people say crows are pests because they destroy crops. There are even carrion crows in the Corvus genus, and their name is proof of their favorite pastime. Their dark plumage and destructive habits also contributed to their association with death and dead bodies. Thus, some assume crows are always around dead bodies. Some people cannot stand crows because these birds spend most of their time scavenging, even in cemeteries. Maybe, some feared it and their superstitious opinions fanned the belief that led to the association with murder. They even investigate the deaths of fellow crows. Crows are self-aware in mirror tests and have a brain-to-body ratio like the great apes. This family has other birds like jays, nutcrackers, and magpies. Plus, man is always fascinated by this bird, so he can create folk tales about it because crows belong to the Corvidae family, which has some of the most intelligent avians in the world. This bird species can eliminate a dying crow from a flock, a behavior that may be the basis of this tale. One of these folk tales suggests that a group of crows congregates to decide the capital fate of one of them. There are various explanations for the murder of crows collective term. The first consisted of group nouns for many animals a hunter could come across, but the lists grew to include other group terms for professions or human groups.Įach group noun has a history. These nouns originated in the late middle ages after the publication of books like The Book of Saint Albans, a list of group nouns. Aristocrats must have found it fashionable to use such exaggerated language that they accepted whichever names were suggested in publications and used them in everyday speech. Some terms were complimentary, such as a charm of goldfinches, while others used exaggeration or pure poetic license to describe large groups. A Murder? - Facts About This Collective NounĬollective nouns originated in medieval times. So, what is a group of crows called these days? Based on group nouns, the next time you see crows roosting or scavenging, say you are looking at a murder of crows.īut, I doubt you will ever use such fancy words to describe animal groups in this century because the English language is no longer about displaying nobility through exaggerated terms but about convenience and effective communication.
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