Bird Brains Trivia Quiz

Answer: Unihemispheric Slow Wave Sleep

Unihemispheric Slow Wave Sleep lends meaning to the phrase "sleeping with one eye open". It is the ability to rest half of the brain while the other is still alert. Some mammals, such as dolphins, are able to do this and so can some birds. This is particularly handy for them when migrating as it allows them to rest while flying. The absolute champion in this regard is the Alpine swift who has been known to be able to fly for 200 days in a row.

These birds can be startled awake by the approach of predators, other birds in the area or changes to the weather. Whilst they can drift off when the coast is clear, USWS allows them to be instantly alert when a threat arrives.

Answer: 18

Let's say that there are (x) birds in box one. Therefore, there are 1.5(x) in box two and 2 x 1.5(x) birds in the last box. We can safely say then that the last box equals 3(x). The equation would then read:

(X) + 1.5(X) + 3(X) + 1 = 100. More succinctly it would be
5.5(X) + 1 = 100.

Take one from both sides and 5.5(X) = 99.
99 divided by 5.5 = 18.

Answer: Russell Crowe

Crowe was charged with assault in the second degree after throwing a telephone at the concierge of the Mercer Hotel in New York. The concierge had refused to assist Crowe in placing a call when the system in Crowe's room had ceased to work. He (the concierge) wound up with facial lacerations. Crowe was arrested and forced to endure the "perp" walk, which meant he was handcuffed and carried away in plain sight of the media.

Crowe, who pleaded guilty to the offence, describes the incident as the most shameful of his career and concurred that it had had a negative impact on his career. The event would be lampooned by the animated TV series "South Park" in 2010.

Answer: Nighthawk

Nighthawk, who was modeled on DC Comics' "Batman", was a member of a four man team known as Squadron Sinister. The story arc ran for three issues after which Nighthawk decided to go solo. His next appearance was in "Daredevil #62" (March, 1970) where he worked hard to undermine the credibility of the title character with a view to taking over his role, with a sinister intent.

Nighthawk turned away from the dark side, joining the Defenders in "The Defenders #13-14" (May-July 1974) until, supposedly, sacrificing himself during "The Defenders #106" (April 1982).

There have been a number of different Nighthawks in the Marvel Universe. Kyle Richmond, though, was the first of them.

Answer: A wig

The macaroni (originally maccaroni) wig was a piece of extreme fashion during the 1770s. It was a very high, powdered, wig with long curls and on top of the wig was a chapeau-bras (a two-cornered hat). The hat sat so high that the only way a wearer could remove it was with a sword.

The word macaroni evolved to be a derogatory term for a dandy or a fop. Essentially, it would be describing men who had "exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion" be that in clothes, food or gambling.

Answer: Joinery

Dovetail joints, which are believed to have been created well before written history, are a technique used in the creation of furniture, timber framing, the building of log cabins, and a bevy of other woodworking projects.

The joint is made by cutting a series of "pins" at one end of a board and these are interlocked with a series of "tails" on the end of another board. To facilitate this the pins and tails are cut out as trapezoids. Once interlocked, the joint will not require any fastening, though most joiners would apply a spot of glue to give the project an added dimension of strength.

The beauty of dovetail joints are their tensile strength and their ability to resist being pulled apart. Consequently, this makes them ideal for furniture making, in particular, the front faces of drawers.

Answer: Egypt

The name of the city was al-Fustat or, simply, Fustat, which was the capital of Egypt between 905 and 969. The name means "large pavilion" in Arabic.

The mighty Muslim conqueror, Amr ibn al-As, was preparing to march on Alexandria as part of his conquest of Egypt. Legend tells that he awoke on the morning of the march to find that a dove had laid an egg on his tent. He proclaimed this to be an omen sent by God and, as he set off, he instructed that his tent remain untouched. With the mission a success, he returned and insisted that all of his soldiers and retinue pitch their tents around his. He called the spot Misr al-Fustat (City of Tents) and proclaimed the spot the new capital city.

Answer: Eagle

The Parteiadler (Party's Eagle) was adopted by the Nazi Party in 1935 by an order from Adolf Hitler. The eagle design that was used was based on the Reichsadler which, itself, was based on the eagle standard adopted by the Holy Roman Empire. The differentiation is that the Reichsadler eagle looks over its right shoulder while the stylized eagle of the Nazi national symbol looks over its left.

Whilst Germany has since distanced itself from the swastika, it re-implemented the eagle as its national symbol in 1950 and it is now known as the Bundesadler, or Federal Eagle.

Answer: Pie vent

Pies that have a crust on top need to be vented to allow steam to escape. If the steam does not find a way out, the fillings are likely to boil and then leak through the crust. The vent, which is placed in the centre of the pie can also be used as support for the crust.
,
Originally, these were simple tubes, the bird shapes would come later. There is a school of thought that the inspiration for the pie-birds was the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence" and its famous line about "four and twenty blackbirds in a pie".

Answer: Swan Lake

Set to a stunning score created by the Russian composer Tchaikovsky, the beautifully choreographed "Swan Lake" (1877) is considered to be one of the world's most famous ballets.

The story begins with Prince Siegfried, who encounters a flock of swans while on a hunting trip, and he falls in love with the Swan Queen. Remarkably, this queen is a human, named Odette, who has been cursed so that she resembles a swan and can only return to her human form in the hours between midnight and daybreak... and only true love can break this evil spell. It appears that the queen is likely to be saved... but the evil sorcerer, Baron von Rothbart, the man who cast the original spell, sees the danger and so he casts a spell on his own daughter, Odile. She turns into a black swan but is an exact replica of Siegried's beloved Odette. Odile seduces the prince and he, not realizing it is not Odette, pledges his undying love to her, thereby dooming both himself and Odette.

Many productions have concluded the performance by having the prince commit suicide. He does so by, symbolically, jumping in the lake and drowning. The Bolshoi Ballet, in 1984, chose to do something completely different and provided the story with a happy ending... didn't that cause a storm in the lake.

Answer: No

When Fleming was casting around for a name for his protagonist, he claimed that he wanted something that was "plain and dull". His ideal was for Bond to be anonymous, a blunt instrument that was utilized by his government, but to whom exotic things happened. Sitting on his coffee table was a book called "Birds of the West Indies" (1936) by Dr. James Bond... the author's name, he felt, was perfect.

Fleming would write twelve novels and nine short stories featuring the secret agent with the "license to kill", but none of their titles would feature an avian link. Even subsequent authors for the Bond franchise, the likes of John Gardner, Raymond Benson and Anthony Horowitz, have avoided the birds (of the feathered variety) in their titles. The closest we could see was John Gardner's "Brokenclaw" (1990), his tenth publication for the series, but that is a mere bird part, not a bird name.

Answer: Sergeant York

Hawks, who rose to prominence during Hollywood's "Classic Era" (1913-1962), is often cited as "the greatest American director who was never a household name". His films spanned many genres, from comedies ("Bringing Up Baby" - 1938), to science-fiction ("The Thing From Another World" - 1951), to gangster films ("Scarface" - 1932), to drama ("To Have and Have Not" - 1944) and, most of all, the western

He was nominated for an Academy Award for "Sergeant York" (1941), which starred Gary Cooper, and was notable for his ability to showcase women who were both tough talking and strong of character. These ladies would become known as "Hawksian Women". His partnership with John Wayne helped to elevate the western genre, commencing with one of Wayne's finest performances and, possibly, Hawk's finest movie, "Red River" in 1948. The pair would collaborate on a further three westerns, "Rio Bravo" (1959), "El Dorado" (1966) and "Rio Lobo" (1970). In the midst of these was the African safari adventure film "Hatari" (1962).

Answer: Noel Gallagher

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds was formed in 2010 and the inspiration for the name came from two sources. The first was the cover of the song "High Flying Bird" by Jefferson Airplane (see footnote) but the idea to preface this with his own name, reportedly, came from listening to the 1968 album "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac".

Between 2010 and 2023, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds had released four albums and three extended plays (EPs), the most significant of which was their eponymous debut disc which was released in 2011. That album was classified three times platinum, with sales in excess of 2.5 million across the globe.

(Footnote) "High Flying Bird" was written by Billy Ebb Wheeler and originally recorded by Judy Henske in 1963. Jefferson Airplane laid down a version of the song during a recording session in 1965 but it did not see the light of day until it was added to their compilation album "Early Flight", released in 1974.

Answer: Wren

On the score of being an architect, Sir Christopher Wren was one of the most acclaimed in the history of Great Britain. After the Great Fire of London in 1666 he was given the task of rebuilding 52 of the city's churches. The magnificent St. Paul's Cathedral, situated on Ludgate Hill and completed in 1710, was considered to the jewel in his crown of work. Other great buildings in the city that are present, thanks to his remarkable skills, include the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, the southern face of Hampton Court Palace and the Old Royal Naval college in Greenwich.

Wren was an extremely gifted individual, and he was also a keen astronomer, as well as being knowledgeable in the fields of physics and mathematics.

Answer: Yes

The ostrich rates a mention in Job 39:13-18 (NIV), with the first verse echoing...
"The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,
though they cannot compare
with the wings and feathers of the stork"...
It goes onto to describe the bird as being lazy, laying its eggs on the desert floor so that the warm sands can do the work of incubating them.

It then raises the question as to how common the ostrich was in the areas of the southern Lavant and Arabia. Despite the fact that wild ostriches outside of North Africa have been extinct since the early 20th century, a breakfast made from scrambled ostrich egg may not have been out of place in these areas during the Old Testament. In recent times, archaeological finds have uncovered significant evidence of ostrich egg-shells through areas such as Israel. That said, the finding of the eggs is not conclusive proof as findings of ostrich bones in those same areas have proven to be rare.

Answer: Continually present

Enzootic describes a situation in which a disease is continually present within a particular species or creatures confined to a certain region. If we were to look at the equivalent of this in human terms, we would say it was endemic. This means that the disease will have a steady, possibly predictable number of animals that would/could get sick. Once again, looking at this from the human perspective, a good example is chicken pox. Chicken pox is endemic in some parts of the world (say) Australia, whereas, malaria may not be.

Answer: Queensland

The VFL was, initially, a breakaway competition, in Victoria, that commenced in 1896. During the 1970s the idea of expanding the competition into other states began to gain a little traction and, in 1982, a Victorian team set up its base in New South Wales. The VFL granted licenses to two teams from two other states, Queensland and Western Australia, in 1987 to join the VFL. This became the start of a national football competition, prompting a change of the league's name to the Australian Football League in 1990.

South Melbourne relocated to New South Wales in 1982, changing their name to the Sydney Swans. Queensland, who were awarded their license in 1987, introduced the Brisbane Bears into the competition. The Bears would later merge with Fitzroy, a struggling Victorian club, and they would change their name to the Brisbane Lions.

Other states would follow. Western Australia, who'd also received their license in 1987, introduced the West Coast Eagles, and South Australia, as the Adelaide Crows, came on board in 1991. By 2024, all of the abovenamed non-Victorian states had fielded a second team and approval had been given to Tasmania (the Tasmanian Devils) to enter the League in 2028.

Answer: Hawk

Reynolds played the part of John Hawk, a full-blood Iroquois, working as a detective for the District Attorney in New York City. Introducing him in this manner opened the door for the scriptwriters to explore the racism and discrimination cards, which did not sit too well with the viewing audience at the time. The show lasted the single season (1966) before being cancelled.

Whilst Reynolds is best known as the leading man in such films as "Deliverance" (1972), "Smokey and the Bandit" (1977) and as the high-minded pornographer in "Boogie Nights" (1997), many tend to lose sight of the fact that he held a long and distinguished career in television. Gaining his first major break with "Riverboat" (1959-1961), he was Quint Asper alongside James Arness in "Gunsmoke" for 50 episodes between 1962 and 1965, starred as the detective "Dan August" (1970-1971) and won Prime Time Emmys for his role as Wood Newton in "Evening Shade" (1990-1994).

Answer: Animal Crossing

Brewster is a pigeon who sports a mustache and a set of glasses and, in the "Animal Crossing" series, he runs a small café called The Roost. His first appearance came in "Animal Crossing: Wild World" in 2005.

Should you choose to visit his coffee house and buy a brew, he will regale you with his knowledge about coffee, the special blends that are available, as well as stories about his life. The secret though is, the more coffee you buy, the more he is prone to reveal.

Answer: Papua New Guinea

The Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea raggiana) is a symbol of unity to the people of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Accordingly, it also features on their Coat of Arms and it has even been used as the name of their National Rugby League team. Their rugby team is known as the Kumuls, which is "Bird of Paradise" in Tok Pisin - New Guinea pidgin.

Their flag, which was designed by a fifteen year-old schoolgirl, is dressed in black and red colours, the traditional colours of many of the tribes in the country. There is also suggestion that there may have been a German influence to this as the flag of the German Empire, which had colonized the country in the years prior to 1918, was steeped in black, red and white.