House Finches and stuff

What is the collective noun for House Finches? Because I now need it. From having just a happy courting couple, I have now moved on to an invasion, a veritable plague of them. Ah, that's it! A Plague of House Finches! They are like our Greenfinches in their ubiquity and their voracity. They occupy every vacant diner's slot, with a slather of others waiting their turn. This is the only time I have seen House Sparrows cowed. These latter wait on the fringes for a turn that rarely comes. By the way, as you might expect, the Californian House Sparrows have developed variant plumage characteristics, to the extent that, for a while, I found them exciting, you know, like Darwin and the Galapagos finches, but it's too hot at the moment for erudition.

Talking of excitement, the fact that I now have two feeding stations (seeds for the finches/sparrows and nectar for the hummingbirds), and a chirpy budgerigar, means that other birds are attracted to the backyard. It's only a matter of time before a Cooper's Hawk, the local equivalent of the Sparrowhawk, swoops down and makes off with a chunky piece of passerine.

Oh yes, and before you go, I am disappointed that Curitiba, our budgie, has not learned to talk, not even a "Pretty Bird" or "Give us a kiss". Last night I tried to teach it the words of Waltzing Matilda, but clearly, unlike the Norwegian Blue Parrot pining for the Fjords, it has lost all interest in its natal land, the Outback, billabongs and the rest.