{"id":34989,"date":"2024-01-04T13:45:41","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T12:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/55bd7583-5d0d-4a4d-bc0e-dc6897803b5e"},"modified":"2024-01-04T15:36:54","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T14:36:54","slug":"why-is-it-called-a-murder-of-crows","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/why-is-it-called-a-murder-of-crows\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is it called a murder of crows?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Mike Toms\n <\/p>

Published: Thursday, 04 January 2024 at 12:45 PM<\/p>

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The origin of the term murder meaning flock of crow has much to do with the scavenging nature of this and other corvids. <\/strong><\/p>

Historically the presence of the gallows and slaughter on the battlefields would have provided rich pickings for our two species of crow. <\/p>

Crow vs raven: what’s the difference between these two black corvids?<\/a><\/li>
Crows have a reputation for being smart, but are they actually clever?<\/a><\/li><\/ul>
Such an association with death saw the development of folklore and superstition, causing the birds to be viewed less than favourably In fact some of this mythology was originally associated with ravens but, given t considerable difficulties that many people have in identifying black corvids<\/a>, it is understandable that traditions were transferred between the species.<\/p>
Much of the folklore is rather macabre. There is, for example, the belief that crows peck out the eyes of their ‘victims’ to attain their excellent vision. It is a small step to see a group of crows, attracted to a corpse, not as scavengers <\/a>but as agents of death with murderous intentions. <\/p>
Discover more collective names for animals<\/a><\/strong><\/p>
Main image: Getty Images<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
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By Mike Toms Published: Thursday, 04 January 2024 at 12:45 PM The origin of the term murder meaning flock of crow has much to do with the scavenging nature of this and other corvids. Historically the presence of the gallows and slaughter on the battlefields would have provided rich pickings for our two species of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":34990,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/01\/why-is-it-called-a-murder-of-crows.jpg",2124,1412,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/01\/why-is-it-called-a-murder-of-crows-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/01\/why-is-it-called-a-murder-of-crows-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/01\/why-is-it-called-a-murder-of-crows-768x511.jpg",768,511,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/01\/why-is-it-called-a-murder-of-crows-1024x681.jpg",800,532,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/01\/why-is-it-called-a-murder-of-crows-1536x1021.jpg",1536,1021,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/01\/why-is-it-called-a-murder-of-crows-2048x1361.jpg",2048,1361,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Mike Toms Published: Thursday, 04 January 2024 at 12:45 PM The origin of the term murder meaning flock of crow has much to do with the scavenging nature of this and other corvids. Historically the presence of the gallows and slaughter on the battlefields would have provided rich pickings for our two species of…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/34989"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}