An Asylum of Loons: Charming Names from the Bird World

by Adventure Publications (Created by)

Overview

When “bird” is not the word, this book tells you what is.

A murder of crows, a charm of goldfinch, a huddle of penguins—groupings of birds are more than just a “flock.” Collective nouns for specific types of birds range from fascinating to funny, and this adorable book is your guide to the best of them. Discover the surprising number of different terms, and learn their true meanings—as well as the history behind them. Did C.S. Lewis really coin the phrase, “a parliament of owls”? Find out in this colorfully designed conversation-starter. The spectacular full-color photography that accompanies each entertaining tidbit further enhances the collectability of An Asylum of Loons. The book is destined to be a popular gift for bird lovers, so grab one for yourself and give a copy to the birders in your life, too!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781591939054
Publisher:	Adventure Publications, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/21/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Adventure Publications, an imprint of AdventureKEEN, is renowned for its popular, informative, user-friendly products. With a focus on regional nature titles, travel books, field guides and cookbooks, Adventure offers top-selling titles for almost every U.S. state. Great books, great sales, great service—that’s what Adventure Publications is all about.

Read an Excerpt

DOVES, a dole, true love, or pitying of:
Doves’ soft coos have long been associated with mourning, so it’s perhaps no surprise that English borrowed the French word for mourning, “deuil,” and morphed it into “dule” or “dole.” This was the chosen collective noun for doves. The same sad meaning is likely the connection to “pitying” (sometimes, “piteousness”). In other instances, doves are seen as symbols of faithfulness, hence “true love.” Since early lists of terms of venery also referred to these birds as turtledoves, we get alliterative versions on those lists, like this: “A Trewloue of Turtuldowys.”

DUCKS, a paddling, badling, raft, team, or safe:
Ducks are among the groups of birds that have earned a host of collective nouns, including separate nouns depending on where the group of ducks has been sighted. In the water, they’re a “paddling” or “raft,” or the oft-copied misspelling of “paddling”: “badling.” On land, they are a “safe,” perhaps reflecting humans’ attitudes toward land more than ducks’. In flight, ducks are a “team,” a word that in its original Germanic senses meant “offspring” and was used particularly for ducklings. The earliest uses of “team” as a collective noun for a group of ducks in flight go back to the 1400s.

DUNLINS, a fling of:
Dunlins often form flocks of great numbers. They fly in a tight formation with highly complicated, highly coordinated sets of movements, which quickly “fling” them through the sky.

EAGLES, a convocation or aerie of:
“Aerie” is the word for eagles’ nests. A “convocation” is a group called together in a formal way, often for a ceremony, whether academic or religious. This seems to befit a bird with such a stern, serious expression and with such a weighty, official symbolic meaning in the U.S.

Table of Contents

Bird List

• Albatrosses
• Auks
• Avocets
• Babblers
• Bitterns
• Blackbirds
• Bluejays
• Bobolinks
• Bobwhites
• Boobies
• Buffleheads
• Bullfinches
• Buntings
• Buzzards
• Canaries
• Canvasbacks
• Cardinals
• Catbirds
• Chickadees
• Chickens
• Chiffchaffs
• Choughs
• Cockatoos
• Coots
• Cormorants
• Cowbirds
• Cranes
• Creepers
• Crossbills
• Crows
• Cuckoos
• Curlews
• Dodos
• Dotterels
• Doves
• Ducks
• Dunlins
• Eagles
• Egrets
• Eiders
• Emus
• Falcons
• Finches
• Flamingos
• Flickers
• Flycatchers
• Frigatebirds
• Galahs
• Gannets
• Godwits
• Goldeneyes
• Geese
• Goshawks
• Grackles
• Grebes
• Grosbeaks
• Grouses
• Gulls
• Harriers
• Hawks
• Herons
• Hoatzins
• House Martins
• Hummingbirds
• Ibises
• Jackdaws
• Jays
• Juncos
• Kakapos
• Kestrels
• Killdeer
• Kingbirds
• Kingfishers
• Kinglets
• Kites
• Knots
• Lapwings
• Larks
• Linnets
• Loons
• Magpies
• Mallards
• Martins
• Meadowlarks
• Merlins
• Mockingbirds
• Nighthawks
• Nightingales
• Nuthatches
• Orioles
• Ospreys
• Ostriches
• Owls
• Parrots
• Partridges
• Peacocks
• Pelicans
• Penguins
• Phalaropes
• Pheasants
• Phoebes
• Phoenixes
• Pigeons
• Plovers
• Pochards
• Ptarmigans
• Puffins
• Quails
• Ravens
• Redpolls
• Roadrunners
• Robins
• Rooks
• Roosters
• Ruffs
• Sandpipers
• Sapsuckers
• Seagulls
• Sheldrakes/ Shelducks
• Shovellers
• Skimmers
• Snipes
• Songbirds
• Soras
• Sparrows
• Starlings
• Storks
• Swallows
• Swans
• Swifts
• Teals
• Terns
• Thrushes
• Titmouses
• Toucans
• Towhees
• Turkeys
• Virginia rails
• Vultures
• Wagtails
• Warblers
• Waterfowl
• Waxwings
• Whip-poor-wills
• Wigeons
• Woodcocks
• Woodpeckers
• Wrens
• Yellowlegs