Photogenic Birds for Kids Trivia Quiz

Answer: Stork

The pictured bird is one of the 19 members of the stork family, specifically the saddle-billed stork which is common throughout most of Africa. They grow to be almost five feet tall with a wingspan of more than eight feet, and yet in flight they are elegant gliders, soaring on the thermal currents. Indeed, photographs of storks in flight were used as the basis for the design of gliders in the 19th century.
Like many bird species, the collective noun for a group of storks is one trivia buffs might find it worth remembering -- it can be either a muster of storks or a phalanx of storks.

Answer: Flamingo

Ancient Egyptians worshiped the flamingo as the living representation of their Sun god, Ra. In contrast, flamingo tongue was a delicacy in Ancient Rome. The official national bird of the Bahamas, the flamingo stands on one side of the nation's coat of arms with the marlin on the other side. Flamingos are not actually pink, but white.

Their pink or even red coloring comes from the high concentration of carotenoids in their natural diet of brine shrimp and blue-green algae. Flamingos in captivity often lose much of their pink coloring because of lower levels of the pigment in their food. One explanation for the curiously-shaped neck of the flamingo is that they have to turn their head upside-down to feed -- their beaks filter mud and silt from their food but for some reason are designed to do this upside-down.

Answer: Hummingbird

A hummingbird flaps its wings at a rate of around 50 beats per second, allowing it to hover motionless in mid-air while feeding, as in the photo, or to fly at speeds of up to 35 mph, backwards.
The pictured member of the hummingbird family is the smallest of all, and the smallest of all living birds, the bee hummingbird ('Mellisuga helenae'). Native to Cuba and surrounding Caribbean islands, everything about this species is small -- its nest is a cup-shaped structure less than an inch in diameter and its eggs could easily be mistaken for small peas.

Answer: Crane

There are 15 crane species, the best-known (and most endangered) of which is pictured here in a somewhat unflattering pose, the whooping crane. Cranes are particularly distinct in flight, when they advance with their necks outstretched. The crane family includes the world's tallest flying bird, the Sarus crane, which can stand at close to six feet tall. Cranes appear in the stories and mythologies of numerous ancient cultures.

In Asia, the crane is the symbol of happiness and eternal youth. Its fabled lifespan of a thousand years makes it a symbol of longevity.

It is rumored that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane.

Answer: Condor

There are two members of the vulture family called condors. The pictured bird is a California condor, native to the mountains along the west coast of the U.S. and northwestern Mexico. The other is the Andean condor, which lives further south in the Andes mountains. Both are very large, broad-winged, soaring birds.

The Californian condor is the North America's largest flying land bird, whilst only the wandering albatross (from all living bird species) has a larger wingspan than the Andean condor. Condors cover a large territory, often flying as far as 160 miles in their daily search for food.

They do not eat every day, but when they do they sometimes really gorge. Indeed, they have been known to eat so much that they are then unable to take off.

Answer: Kingfisher

The pictured bird is the common kingfisher, a river kingfisher native to Europe and North Africa. (Kingfisher species each belong to one of three different branches of the family: river, water or tree.)
The common kingfisher generally hunts from a perch a few feet above the water. It then dives into the water onto its unsuspecting prey, although generally it does not dive more than a foot below the surface. Minnows, sticklebacks, small roach and trout are all typical prey for the common kingfisher, although it also takes insects such as water beetles and dragonfly.

Answer: Cuckoo

Not all cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, although this is a practice followed by a large percentage of cuckoo species. When the young cuckoos hatch, they either destroy the eggs of the host bird or throw their chicks out of the nest, leaving the unsuspecting host parents to feed and fledge the cuckoo chicks as their own.
Many tourists, particularly to the Black Forest region of Germany, take home wooden replicas of this bird in a little box. Southwestern Germany is the home of the cuckoo clock and this has become one of the country's cultural icons and a popular souvenir for tourists.
The pictured species is the brightly-colored Diederik cuckoo, a native of sub-Saharan Africa. It lays its single egg in the nest of a weaver.

Answer: Sparrowhawk

The pictured bird is the Eurasian sparrowhawk, which can be found throughout the temperate regions of the Old World. The best place to see sparrowhawks is in woodland areas or in open areas with a good scattering of trees. They specialize in catching woodland birds such as tits, finches, thrushes, starlings and sparrows.
The sparrowhawk is not at the top of the food chain, though: various species of owl, eagle and marten as well as terrestrial predators such as foxes have the sparrowhawk high on their own favored menu.

Answer: Macaw

There are six species of 'true parrot' that are classified as macaws. The pictured species is the blue-and-gold macaw, native to the Amazon rainforest region and as far north as Panama. Nesting exclusively in dead palms, the chicks remain in the rest for over three months before fledging.
Blue-and-gold macaws are popular pets, partly because of their ability to talk. They are also highly intelligent and social animals, and can even be taught to do tricks.
A macaw's natural call can best be described as a 'scream' -- no need for an alarm clock with one of these guys in the house, although 'setting it' is a bit of a problem.

Answer: Tit

The tit family is spread widely across Europe, Asia, North America and Africa. Active, noisy and social birds, they can often be seen joining with other species to feed outside the breeding season. Only parrots, jays and crows are considered more intelligent in the avian community. Common visitors to urban gardens, most species will take seeds and nuts from mad-made feeders. The pictured species is the great tit, a non-migratory resident in much of Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

His distinctive black head make him easy to pick out of a multi-species feeding flock. Like most tits, the great tit is very vocal, with more than 40 song variations in its repertoire.