British Bird Bonanza Trivia Quiz

Answer: Garganey

Unlike most duck species whose numbers are swelled in winter by continental immigrants, the garganey leaves the country to winter in Western Africa returning in March to breed in the UK.

Answer: Rusty-red

It is the male of the species which gives the species its name of blackcap. The blackcap is one of the only species of warblers to show differences in plumage between the sexes.

Answer: Swift

This is also where the common English use of the word swift (meaning quick) comes from. The bird moves through the air at great speed but is incapable of perching with its small feet and nearly non-existent legs.

Answer: Starling

Eurasian starlings are the commonest starling species in Northern Europe, while spotless become commoner in the south of Europe. Although spotless starlings have never been confirmed as being sighted in the UK, there are several claims from the south-west of the country. Rose-coloured starlings breed on eastern steppeland and turn up in Britain when they disperse after the breeding season.

Answer: Sora

The sora is in fact a member of the crake family, the same family as the moorhen, coot and crane.

Answer: 4

Like all passerines, the short-toed treecreeper has 4 toes on each foot, 3 forward and one back.

Answer: Collared Dove

The collared dove only reached Britain in 1955, with breeding confirmed the next year. Within only a few decades it had radiated from its stronghold in East Anglia and is now a common bird throughout the UK.

Answer: Nightjar

The nightjar displays with a 'churring' noise & wing-clapping that can be heard for miles around. This eerie sound led people to believe the birds were evil spirits and that during the night they came into farm buildings and drank the milk from their goat's udders.

There is, of course, no truth in this - the birds survive on a diet of night-flying insects caught in the large bristles surrounding their wide beaks.

Answer: Yellowhammer

Although more of a 'buzz-buzz-buzz-buzz-buzz-bzzzzzzzzzz' song, with a little imagination the well known phrase can be made out! The sulphur-yellow males add an extra splash of colour to country lanes in the height of summer.

Answer: Fulmar

The bird gained its name 'ful mare' (meaning foul gull and later developing into Fulmar) from its defence strategy. Young birds left along on exposed cliff ledges protect themselves from predators by spewing up a mixture of half digested fish and stomach juices in the direction of the attacker.

The smell is apparently one of the worst that can be experienced and for birds such as gulls and ravens, the acid in the foul mixture may be enough to see their feathers ruined and their ability to fly lost.