a phenomenon that is usually induced by noise [32]. Quite distinctively, the transient cluster synchronization state uncovered in this paper has the following features. (1) The clusters are synchronized in phase, and (2) the emergence of the cluster configuration is time dependent and in fact transient: it can alter in an intermittent fashion where the system switches between different cluster synchronization states. To our knowledge, the phenomena uncovered in this paper, namely transient cluster synchronization umbrellaed by chaotic phase synchronization and intermittent switching among the coexisting cluster synchronization patterns, were not known previously. The phenomena enrich our knowledge about the interplay between network symmetry and the collective dynamics, and are broadly interesting to researchers from different fields including physics, complex systems and ecology.