A group of crows is commonly called a murder in traditional English naming.

The longer version

English has a long tradition of collective nouns for animals, many of them coined by hunters and writers in the late medieval period as playful vocabulary rather than field observation. Birds of prey, game and carrion feeders attracted the most inventive terms.

Crows collected the word murder through association with death and ill omen, since these birds gather around carcasses and battlefields and feature in folklore as signs of bad fortune. The label says more about human imagination than about corvid behaviour. Crows are in fact highly social, forming long-lasting family groups, sharing food, mobbing predators and remembering individual faces for years.

Where this entry sits

This collection gathers small surprises about mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish, insects, and the pets living alongside people. Expect odd details about senses, anatomy, and everyday behaviour that many people never notice in the animals around them. The full list sits on the Animals page, where every entry is listed in order.