Bird-Conjuring Charm

"Most of the class had already left, although several twittering yellow birds were still zooming around the room, all of Hermione's creation; nobody else had succeeded in conjuring so much as a feather from thin air."

- Harry looking to talk to Dean alone after Transfiguration class.

The Bird-Conjuring Charm (Avis) is a spell that conjures a flock of birds. The birds are shot from the caster's wand tip, accompanied by a loud blast that sounds like a gun being fired and smoke.

History
"Severed heads, unidentifiable stumps, terrifying frog-rabbit mutations — all have been created, to the dismay of those who made them..."

- On the side-effects of the spell. This spell was used by Garrick Ollivander when testing the four Triwizard Tournament Champions' wands before their First Task of the Triwizard Tournament, in 1994. This is also possibly the spell that the Sixth year Charms students were learning to perform non-verbally in 1996. Hermione Granger also conjured a flock of birds that same year, most likely using this spell, and made them attack Ron Weasley, after seeing him kiss Lavender Brown.

Known practitioners

 * Garrick Ollivander
 * Hermione Granger

Behind the Scenes

 * It could be that this is a possibe charm to block the Klling Curse. As the charm is used for conjuring birds, if a killing curse was aimed at the caster of this charm, then the killing curse may simply kill the birds infront of the caster. Events that happen in the duel between Albus Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort, in the Battle in the Department of Mysteries support this theory. During the early stages of their duel, Fawkes the Phoenix flies in front of a killing curse aimed at Dumbledore; swallowing it and bursts into flames as a result (fortunately a Phoenix is reborn from the ashes when it dies). The same thing could possibly happen to the conjured birds. If this is true then other spells in this category; that are used to conjure up animals (for example: Serpensortia) would also be just as effective. However there is no mention of this in the books nor in any adaptation of the series. Although, this could be that no witch or wizard ever tested any of these spells against the killing curse. This would be more than likely as who would consider that such a simple charm could block such a deadly and powerful curse.

Etymology
The Latin words avis or aves, meaning "bird".

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
 * Wonderbook: Book of Spells
 * Pottermore

Notes and references
Sortilège d'Apparition d'oiseaux Авис Lenne