WHY IS A FLOCK OF CROWS CALLED a MURDER OF CROWS?

I didn't know that, but that's creepy as hell! Maybe it's called a murder because people in the dark ages were put in "crow cages" to be pecked to death by them as a form of execution.

There are many names for crows in the collective- Murder, hover, parcel, muster, horde and storytelling.

As to how they get that name = it is related to their congregating behaviour, described below (Holding a crow's court)'

:"..... I'm wondering if there's going to be a crows' court. If you've never seen one of these before, it's quite remarkable; a large group of the birds gathers - fifty or more - in a flat open space. After a while they move apart to leave a clear circle in the middle, into which one crow walks with its head bowed submissively. Up until now it's been a fairly noisy event, as you can imagine, but once the single crow moves into the middle the rest of the group falls into a sudden and eerie silence.

Photobucket

Presently the crow in the clearing begins to speak, cawing and muttering, and for as long as this goes on the rest of the birds are silent and relatively still. Eventually, though, the "defendant" bird falls silent, and at this point one of two things happens; either the court disperses, or a smaller group of up to half a dozen birds will pursue and kill the defendant bird, with the entire group following if it makes a break for it. The noise is deafening. The defendant bird is killed as cleanly as possible, usually with blows to the head or neck.

No-one seems to know why crows should do this, but it has all the hallmarks of a formal execution. With so many crows present it cannot be about food, territory or mating rights, and once the defendant bird has been killed the others leave the body untouched (unlike, say, road or predator kills, where they have no scruples about eating it). You can see why it's called a crows' court, and it gives the name to groups of birds from the crow family; a murder of crows, a parliament of rooks, an unkindness of ravens."

http://hedgewizardsdiary.blogspot.com/2007/12/murd...

This is based on the (fallacious) folk tale that crows form tribunals to judge and punish the bad behavior of a member of the flock. If the verdict goes against the defendant, that bird is killed (murdered) by the flock. The basis in fact is probably that occasionally crows will kill a dying crow who doesn't belong in their territory or much more commonly feed on carcasses of dead crows. Also, both crows and ravens are associated with battlefields, medieval hospitals, execution sites and cemeteries (because they scavenged on human remains). In England, a tombstone is sometimes called a ravenstone.

The phrase “a murder of crows” is a poetic term, not a scientific one. The more common expression is “a flock of crows.”

The poetic version is one of the whimsical names for congregations of animals that can be found in James Lipton's book An Exaltation of Larks. Other collective terms include “a covey of partridges,” “a rafter of turkeys,” “a brood of hens,” “a fall of woodcocks,” and “a wedge of swans.”

Lipton traces “a murder of crows” back to the 15th-century phrases a “mursher of crowys” and a “murther of crowes.” I've found postings online mentioning similar citations in the Oxford English Dictionary, but I couldn’t find such references in my CD-ROM version of the OED.

I’ve seen speculation on the Internet that the expression is based on a spurious folk belief that flocks of crows hold trials and execute (that is, murder) members for bad behavior. I’ve also read online that crows sometimes feed on the carcasses of dead crows and may occasionally kill a crow from another flock. I can’t vouch for either of these explanations.

I once heard that crows are poisonous to human beings and that to "eat crow" was a death sentence.

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Although it is not proved I like the suggestion that when a group of crows are disturbed they make a noise like someone is being murdered.

I'm curious why is the second 'a' in your question lowercase when everything else is uppercase?

BTW typing everything in uppercase is considered to be the same shouting

Crows feed off carrion. They were often found at the scene of gallows and executions.

I suspect it's a bit like vultures in that they await death in order to feed.

cause thats what they do,there out there to murder all the little animals :(

Never heard that before