Watch the Birdie! Quiz | Animals

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Swedish physician Claes-Goran Cederlund is a leading ornithologist. He has travelled to some 120 countries to see more than 90% of world's bird species, but we start with one that he might have seen from his back porch. The pictured bird ('Gavia stellata') breeds in Arctic regions and winters in northern coastal waters. Which bird is this that is also sometimes called a diver?

Answer: Red-Throated Loon

The red-throated loon or red-throated diver ('Gavia stellata') is the most widely-spread and also the smallest member of the loon family. It is the only loon to prefer small freshwater lakes for breeding sites. Although it appears clumsy when walking, it is the only member of the loon family that is able to take off from dry land.

2. Our second species is another Arctic breeder, but this one is a long-distance migrator, flying to north Africa, southeast Asia or the Middle East to winter. 'Calidris alpina' is one of the world's most common small wading birds, often seen in large flocks on coastal mudflats or sandy beaches. Which species is this?

Answer: Dunlin

The dunlin ('Calidris alpina') is often grouped with other small wading birds known as stints or peeps. Gregarious by nature, they can often be seen in huge flocks during migration, swirling as if synchronized. Dunlins nest in a vegetation-lined scrape on the ground.

The females frequently desert the breeding area soon after the chicks hatch, leaving the males to provide brood care for the three weeks until the chicks start to fly.

3. You will have to travel to the high plateau of the Himalayas in central Asia if you want to see the pictured bird. its closest relatives are the oystercatchers and avocets. Stony riverbeds are the best place to spot which species?

Answer: Ibisbill

Although related to the waders and a member of the large Charadriiformes order that also includes sandpipers, gulls and plovers, the ibisbill ('Ibidorhyncha struthersii') is sufficiently unusual to have been allocated its own family, 'Ibidorhynchidae'.

This fairly solitary bird is an excellent swimmer and can usually be found near rivers. In the breeding season, you would have to climb to upwards of 5,000 feet, and perhaps as high as 14,000 feet, to find them. In the winter months, they can be seen at lower elevations, probing beneath rocks on stream beds for their diet of aquatic invertebrates and small fish.

4. You have a choice of destinations if you want to add the pictured bird to your ornithological collection: southern Europe and Pakistan during breeding season, and in tropical Africa in the wintertime. It can usually be found in open country near water and is often seen hawking insects in the evenings. Which species is this?

Answer: Collared Pratincole

The collared (or common) pratincole ('Glareola pratincola') is a member of the Glareolidae family that includes numerous pratincole species as well as the coursers.

This short-legged wading bird has long pointed wings and a forked tail which make it ideally adapted for aerial hunting. An unusual trait amongst waders, pratincoles frequently hunt on the wing, like swallows.

5. You will need to continue south to spot the pictured species, 'Dromas ardeola', which lives on the coasts and islands of the Indian Ocean. Related to the waders, it is sufficiently different to have been given its own family. Unlike other wading birds, this one can be seen nesting in burrows dug in sandy banks. Which species is this?

Answer: Crab Plover

The crab plover (or crab-plover) is the only species in the Dromadidae family. Closely related to the gulls and auks, it is the only wading bird that utilizes the heat of the ground to fertilize its eggs. Whilst it has many of the physical characteristics of other plovers, its heavy bill and long legs and more like those of a tern.

As might be expected from its name, the crab-plover exists primarily on a diet of small crustaceans: its bill is designed specifically for the task, which sets it apart from other plovers. Noisy birds, they nest in colonies of more than 1,500 pairs, usually along Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast, the Indian Ocean coast of Somalia, and along the Persian Gulf or Red Sea. In the winter, they can be seen as far south as Tanzania and Madagascar, and as far east as Sri Lanka.

6. American computer game designer Bob Bates is amongst the world's Top 10 bird-watchers, having logged more than 8,500 species. He could remain in his homeland to see our next pictured species, 'Somateria fischeri', but only by travelling to the northernmost state of all. This large sea duck, which feeds by diving for crustaceans and molluscs, builds its nest on tundra close to the ocean. Which species is this?

Answer: Spectacled Eider

The spectacled eider ('Somateria fischeri') breeds only in the Artic region, either along the Alaskan coast of North America or in northeastern Siberia in Russia. In the winter months, large flocks of this large sea duck can be seen in the region to the south of Saint Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, a popular location with numerous seabird species due to the abundance of bivalves found in the surround seas.

The distinctive circular eye-patch gives the spectacled eider its name, and distinguishes it from the larger common eider.

7. British bird-watchers will need to travel north to see our next bird, which breeds mostly in northern Eurasia and North America but also comes as far south as northern Scotland. Sometimes known as the Arctic skua, which species is pictured here?

Answer: Parasitic Jaeger

The parasitic jaeger ('Stercorarius parasiticus') is one of seven species of seabird in the Stercorariidae family of skuas and jaegers. The name jaeger derives from the German word for hunter. In reality, though, this species is more of a pirate, frequently stealing meals from smaller birds such as terns or gulls, hence the 'parasitic' part of its name.

The parasitic jaeger winters in the tropical oceans but returns north to breed. In Britain, it can be seen nesting on the dry tundra, higher fells and islands in the Shetlands and Orkneys, the Outer Hebrides as well as on the mainland in Caithness and Argyll.

8. The heiress of an American advertising magnate, Phoebe Snetsinger's total of 8,398 different bird species was a world record at the time of her death in Madagascar in 1999. Whilst in Africa, she might have viewed our next species, which is native to the semi-arid regions to the south of that continent. About the size of a pigeon, which species of ground-dwelling bird is this?

Answer: Burchell's Sandgrouse

Found in Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, Burchell's sandgrouse ('Pterocles burchelli') was named for the 19th-century English explorer and naturalist William John Burchell. Sandgrouses are seed-eaters that are usually seen in treeless, open country such as plains, savannas and semi-deserts. Because of their dry diet, they need a regular access to water and it is not uncommon to find a flock numbering in the thousands around lakes and waterholes.

9. Only intrepid bird-watchers will get to see out pictured bird in the wild as it is native to the French territory of New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean, some 750 miles east of Australia. 'Rhynochetos jubatus' is the only surviving member of the Rhynochetidae family. Almost flightless, you will find its nest of sticks on the forest floor, where it also hunts its prey of small invertebrates. Which species is this?

Answer: Kagu

The introduction of predator species to these small Pacific islands has proved disastrous for the kagu (or cagou) ('Rhynochetos jubatus') and it is now classified as endangered. It lays only a single egg during a breeding season, so the loss of its single chick to cats, pigs or dogs that have been introduced into the environment by man is bad news for the species. Rats, though, are the biggest threat, accounting for more than 50% of kagu chick predation. Early in the 20th century, it was also hunted and trapped for both the European pet market and for the benefit of museums and zoos.

10. To see our final species, 'Daption capense', you need not travel to the breeding grounds on the islands of Antactica as this bird ventures as far north at Angola and Madagascar during the winter months. Although this is a common Southern Ocean seabird, it is the only extant member of its genus. Which species is this?

Answer: Cape Petrel

Also known as the Cape pigeon, the pintado petrel or the Cape fulmar, the Cape petrel ('Daption capense') is a member of the Procellariidae family which includes fulmarine petrels, gadfly petrels, prions and shearwaters. With more than two million individuals, they are one of the most common of the Antarctic seabirds.

Petrels often appear to run on the water prior to taking off (as the photograph shows one doing), and this is the derivation of their name, from the story of St. Peter walking on water.

Source: Author EnglishJedi

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Tizzabelle before going online.
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Watch the Birdie! Trivia Quiz

There are more than 10,000 species of bird, and the world's Top 20 bird-watchers all claim to have seen more than 70% of that total. We take a whirlwind trip around the world to find some of the more difficult to spot species...

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