I took a walk on Lakeside Drive today and saw scores (hundreds?) of swallows swooping and wheeling like berserk bats toward the lake, upside down over the road, then sideways and shuddering back toward the lake again in a group dance with no obvious explanation.
When I went online and Googled “swallows going berserk,” I found an Audubon blog post in New Hampshire that used that exact phrase. But the author thought the swallows were just feeding and happy to see spring arrive.
I have decided that the collective noun for swallow should be “delirium,” as in “a delirium of swallows.”
Are you into collective nouns for birds and animals? They can be a lot of fun, with terms going back hundreds of years. Find your favorites at Wikipedia, here. A congregation of alligators, a rabble of bees, a coalition of cheetah, a gulp of cormorants, a consortium of crabs, a murder of crows — and I am only in the c’s!
Be sure to use “a delirium of swallows” as your next opportunity and appear to know something esoteric that no one else knows.
Video: John Downer Productions
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
I love that–“a delirium of swallows.”
In the early 1990’s when his orchestra hosted a group of touring ballerinas (mostly 18-22 years old) to perform the Nutcracker. His made-up was my favorite until now. “A giggle of ballerinas.”
I have a new favorite collective noun. I’m sharing this on facebook.
Good one. Who was he?
a clever violist who played with the Minnesota Orchestra.
And humble enough to withstand all the viola jokes that violists have to put up with because they’re not violinists.
🙂
How beautiful that was–wonderful, the slow motion.
And yes, counters for animals. I like “murmuration” for starlings–a murmuration of starlings. And, of course, an exaltation of larks 🙂
and a charm of finches. One is tempted to invent more.