9 Out of 10 Birds Liked This Quiz

Answer: Cardinal

The St Louis Cardinals, of course! The cardinal, or northern cardinal to give it its proper name, is a bright red passerine bird found in the Americas. It mainly lives on plants and seeds, but also eats insects. It is the state bird of Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana and North Carolina.

Answer: Osprey

There are two types of osprey, the western osprey (which can be found in all continents except Antarctica) and the eastern osprey (native to Oceania and Asia). It is a seabird which lives predominantly on fish and subsequently makes its habitat near bodies of water.

Its oily plumage enables it to dive into water and catch fish without getting waterlogged. Ancient legends claimed that ospreys mesmerised fish so much that the fish would yield to them and flip over in the water, and that parents made their chicks fly up to the sun as a test.

Answer: Ratites

The word 'ratite' comes from the Latin 'ratis', or 'raft', a reference to the lack of keels on the sternums of the birds (because rafts don't have keels either). Ratites are flightless and, with the exception of the little kiwi, they are big, long-legged, long-necked birds.

They lack preen glands and have fewer air chambers in their legs, and use their wings for courtship or to distract predators instead. As well as the aforementioned birds, the ratites also include ostriches, rheas and the extinct elephant birds and moas.

Answer: Magpie

Magpies have a reputation across Europe as being thieves who are obsessed with stealing shiny things, but this is not actually true; in fact, they find shiny objects unsettling. However, they are intelligent enough to recognise themselves in a mirror. Both Eurasian and Australian magpies are black and white, though the Eurasian variety also has some blue plumage.

The Australian magpie has gained its bad reputation due to a minority of birds becoming aggressive during mating season and swooping at humans within a certain range of their nests.

Some cyclists paint eyes or put spikes on their helmets to ward magpies off.

Answer: Owls

The vast majority of owls are silent, solitary predators with sharp talons and excellent hearing. There are two principle types of owl: the 'true owls', which includes well-known breeds such as the tawny owl and horned owl, and the barn owls, which have black eyes and heart-shaped faces.

Despite the stereotype of owls being short-sighted, they actually have powerful eyesight, though they have to swivel their heads to look around as their eyes are fixed in place. In many cultures, they are associated with death, and in ancient Greece, the owl was the symbol of Athena, the goddess of wisdom.

Answer: Raven

Immortalised by Edgar Allen Poe, the raven is one of the bigger corvid species, and the common and thick-billed ravens are the largest of the corvids in general. They are generally distinguished from crows by their size and call, and habit of travelling in pairs rather than big groups.

As its name suggests, the common raven is the most widely distributed raven species, and is highly intelligent; ravens have demonstrated problem-solving abilities, the ability to use tools, and can even be taught to talk.

Answer: Arctic tern

The Arctic tern, as its name suggests, favours cold climates and can be found in the colder parts of Eurasia and North America during the northern summer; when it is summer in the southern hemisphere, it migrates to the Antarctic. Its migration routes are some of the longest in the animal kingdom; one Arctic tern flew from northern England to Australia within three months.

It is aggressive when defending its territory, and will even go for polar bears when threatened. It generally lives on fish and crustaceans.

Answer: Nuthatch

The nuthatch is an unusual little bird, in that it has the ability to hang upside-down from a tree branch or clump of pine needles while feeding and hunting. Instead of using its tail for support, it relies on its strong feet. One subspecies, Krüper's nuthatch, can even drink from water beneath it while hanging upside-down.

They are monogamous birds and mainly feed on insects, but will eat seeds in winter when insects are scarcer. They store their food in tree crevices or under stones; rock nuthatches will wedge snails they have caught into crevices for consumption later.

Answer: Toco toucan

With its big colourful beak, the toco toucan is one of the goofier-looking birds out there, and is native to South America. The French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc described its beak as a 'grossly monstrous appendage', while Charles Darwin thought it was a sexual ornament.

However, as well as scaring birds off and peeling fruit, the beak also helps in regulating the toucan's body heat, as it can modify blood flow and radiate heat. The toco toucan is also the biggest toucan species, and lives on fruit, frogs, small birds and insects.

Answer: cormorant

The names 'cormorant' and 'shag' are interchangeable in some countries - for instance, the bird we call the great cormorant in the UK is known as the black shag in New Zealand - but in the UK, the shag is differentiated from the cormorant by its crest. Cormorants are coastal birds with distinctive hooked beaks and can dive to depths of up to 45m.

In Japan and China, they have been used by fishermen to catch fish (they have snares tied round their necks to stop them swallowing the fish). Fans of Liverpool FC might be interested to know that the Liver Bird, the symbol of the team and their home city, is based on a cormorant.