Quiz Monkey |
Science |
Natural History |
Birds and Reptiles |
Said to be able to fly all day without flapping its wings | Albatross | |
The Wandering variety has the largest wingspan of any bird | ||
Migrates from the Arctic to the Antarctic – by far the longest known migration pattern | Arctic Tern | |
Budgerigars are native to | Australia | |
Wading bird of the heron family – restricted to Lancashire and East Anglia in Britain – famous for the "booming" mating call of the male | Bittern | |
Birds of Paradise: most species are found in | Borneo | |
Largest member of the grouse family native to Britain: name comes from the Gaelic for 'horse of the woods' | Capercaillie | |
Food constituent (from shrimps or algae) that makes flamingos pink | Carotene | |
Flightless bird (ratite), native to Australia, New Guinea and the Aru islands (Indonesia): the second heaviest and third tallest living bird species (after the ostrich and, in the latter case, the emu); with a dagger–like claw on one of the three toes on each foot, up to four inches long, it's often described as "the world's most dangerous bird" | Cassowary | |
Member of the crow family with red beak and legs | Chough | |
The smallest species of titmouse, distinguished by the white patch on the back of its black cap | Coal tit | |
A thin–walled expanded portion of the alimentary tract, used for the storage of food prior to digestion | Crop | |
The bee hummingbird – the world's smallest bird – is native to (Caribbean island nation) | Cuba | |
Europe's largest wader: characterised by its long, downward curving beak, grey–brown, streaky plumage, and haunting cry | Curlew | |
Duck that feeds at the surface of the water, rather than by diving | Dabbling duck | |
Name comes (according to some sources) from a Portuguese word for "stupid"; alternatively, it may be an imitation of its call, or from the Dutch word for the little grebe, literally meaning "fat–arse". Last seen on Mauritius in 1662 | Dodo | |
Britain's heaviest and fastest duck (flying at 60 mph); characterised by its large wedge–shaped bill; found mostly in rocky coastal areas | Eider duck | |
Sole diet of the osprey | Fish | |
The Inaccessible Island rail is the world's smallest | Flightless bird | |
Native British seabird, similar to a gull but related to the albatrosses: can spray a foul–smelling oil from its stomach, as a defence against predators (and humans) | Fulmar | |
Grinding stomach in seed–eating birds | Gizzard | |
Flightless seabird, found on islands around the North Atlantic (including Great Britain); hunted to extinction in the mid–19th century | Great auk | |
The heaviest bird capable of flight: extinct in Britain since the 1840s, re–introduced to Salisbury Plain in 2004; raised chicks in 2009 and 2010 | Great Bustard | |
Group of seabirds in the auk family: name believed to be derived from the French form of the name William | Guillemots | |
Gets its name from its liking for the berries of Crataegus monogyna | Hawfinch | |
The most–counted bird in the RSPB's garden survey – 16 successive years, up to and including 2019 | House sparrow | |
Mockingbird: so called because it | Imitates other birds | |
Member of the crow family with distinctive pinkish–brown plumage and blue striped wings | Jay | |
Site where grouse (and other birds, and some other species) perform their mating display | Lek | |
The dodo lived on | Mauritius | |
Britain's smallest bird of prey: gave its name to the engine (manufactured by Rolls–Royce) that powered the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster; sometimes known as the pigeon hawk | Merlin | |
Gets its name from its liking for the berries of Viscum album; also known as the stormcock (because of its loud, far–carrying song, delivered even in wet and windy weather) | Mistle thrush | |
Flightless, wingless, ostrich–like bird, native to New Zealand (ten species): became extinct c. 1500 (Maoris told European settlers about it; remains have been found) | Moa | |
Said to be the world's rarest goose: saved from extinction in the 1950s through the work of Sir Peter Scott at the Wildfowl Trust | Nene (nay–nay) or Hawaiian goose | |
Where do swifts mate? | On the wing | |
Returned to Scotland naturally in the 1950s after 50 years absence | Osprey | |
Only bird with two toes on each foot | Ostrich | |
Common or Indian, green and Congo are the three main species of | Peafowl | |
Name is supposed to be derived from the Welsh for "white head" (pen gwyn); originally applied to the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) | Penguin | |
50% of ducks and swans, but no other birds, have a | Penis | |
Member of the grouse family, native to Britain: plumage changes from grey and brown in summer to predominantly white in winter (beware: other British birds do change their plumage in winder, albeit perhaps not as spectacularly as this one) | Ptarmigan | |
Largest and most widely distributed in the crow family, and arguably the largest passerine (perching) bird | (Common) raven | |
Once common in Britain – regarded as a pest in Jacobean times – reduced to a handful of breeding pairs in Wales by the 20th century, but widely re–introduced and now common e.g. in the Chilterns | Red kite | |
Mountain–dwelling member of the thrush family: common name comes from an old English name for the blackbird, and the white crescent on the front of its neck | Ring ouzel | |
Breeding colony of penguins | Rookery | |
Duck species, named for its chestnut plumage: introduced to Britain from North America by Peter Scott in 1948, but culled in Europe in the 21st century (from around 5,500 birds to fewer than 100) because of its aggressive courting behaviour and willingness to interbreed with the endangered native white–headed duck of southern Europe | Ruddy duck | |
Wading bird of the sandpiper family: named after the distinctive neck feathers of the males, which they use to intimidate each other during mating displays | Ruff | |
Terrestrial bird of prey, endemic to the open grasslands and savannahs of sub–Saharan Africa, named from the feathers on its head which look like quill pens; eats mainly snakes | Secretary bird | |
Unfledged pigeon | Squab | |
British bird with a 'superb' East African relative | Starling | |
Bird of prey falling on its prey | Stoop | |
A bird's vocal organ (the equivalent of the mammalian larynx) | Syrinx | |
Britain's smallest duck: the male is characterised by its orange–brown head and grey plumage; name is also a greeny–blue colour | Teal | |
Chickadees: American name for | Tits | |
Can be yellow, grey or pied (among many other varieties) | Wagtails | |
Common name for various perching birds, including the chiffchaff, blackcap and whitethroat; the goldcrest and firecrest are often compared to them (e.g. by Wikipedia) | Warbler | |
Dartford, grasshopper, marsh, reed, sedge, willow and wood are types of | ||
Common name for the furcula | Wishbone | |
Breast of the grey wagtail | Yellow | |
"A little bit of bread and no cheese" is a phrase used as an aide–memoire for recognising the song of the (native British bird in the bunting family) | Yellowhammer | |
Britain's commonest wild bird (according to the RSPB – but not according to its garden survey) | Wren |
© Haydn Thompson 2017–24