ScienceAugust 27, 2026
flockmates
FLOK-mayts
Definition
Other individual birds that belong to the same group or flock as a specific bird.
Etymology
The word is a compound derived from the Old English 'flocc' (a company or troop) and 'mate' (a companion or partner), reflecting the social nature of birds that live and travel in groups.
In the news
The article uses the word to explain how crows share knowledge about threatening humans, noting that birds learn to recognize dangerous faces from their flockmates rather than just through personal experience.
Crows can memorise the face of a person who wronged them, hold the grudge for as long as 17 years, and teach it to their own chicks and flockmates, so that birds who never even saw the original offence will still harass the person on sight.
Read the full article ↗ScienceBlog.com