Donal Hickey: A twitter of linnets and a mischief of magpies... how many do you know?

There's also a parliament of rooks, a charm of goldfinches, and a quarrel of sparrows

One for sorrow, two for joy... or a whole 'mischief of magpies'

Names given to flocks of birds of the same species can be charming, odd, bizarre, or downright cruel. Often, however, these collective nouns are uncannily descriptive of birds’ reputation and colouring.

In a recent column in the Outdoors pages, Richard Collins referred to the collective noun, ‘ unkindness of ravens’. The raven is seen as a bird of ill-omen, he noted.