Krillion Recorded answers
1,467 recorded answers
How to approach it
Work outward from water types rather than from memory of a bird list. Take each kind of water in turn — open ocean, estuary, slow river, highland lake, marsh, flooded field, rocky shore — and ask which birds you can actually name that depend on it. Write down every candidate, even the ones you think are too obscure, because breadth is what this puzzle rewards. Then check each name for a real species behind it: a stable common name, a described range, a documented link to water. Drop anything that is only a family label or a bird you half-remember. Before submitting, keep the strangest plausible name and discard the generic one; the scoring favours precision over familiarity.
Get a hint
Start from the habitat instead of the family tree: fresh water, salt water, marsh, shoreline and riverbank each host their own set of birds, and any of them is a legitimate entry.
A little more
Within that habitat, sort candidates by how they use it — diving for fish, wading in shallows, nesting in reeds, probing mud, or simply roosting on rocks and posts at the water's edge.
One step further
Aim for a precise species name rather than a broad label, and lean toward something specialised, a bird whose whole life is spent on one kind of water body, over the first one that comes to mind.
Reveal answers 1,467
- Heinroth's ShearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Henderson PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Herald PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Herring gullDeep Cut85points
- Highland Rush WarblerDeep Cut85points
- Hoary-headed grebeDeep Cut85points
- HoatzinDeep Cut85points
- Hooded craneDeep Cut85points
- Hooded grebeDeep Cut85points
- Hooded merganserDeep Cut85points
- Hooded ploverDeep Cut85points
- Horned cootDeep Cut85points
- Horned grebeDeep Cut85points
- Horned puffinDeep Cut85points
- Horned screamerDeep Cut85points
- Hudsonian godwitDeep Cut85points
- Hudsonian whimbrelDeep Cut85points
- Humblot's HeronDeep Cut85points
- Humboldt penguinDeep Cut85points
- Hutton's shearwaterDeep Cut85points
- IbisbillDeep Cut85points
- Iceland gullDeep Cut85points
- Imperial shagDeep Cut85points
- Imperial SnipeDeep Cut85points
- Inca ternDeep Cut85points
- Indian cormorantDeep Cut85points
- Indian pond heronDeep Cut85points
- Indian Runner duckDeep Cut85points
- Indian skimmerDeep Cut85points
- Indian spot-billed duckDeep Cut85points
- Indian Yellow-nosed AlbatrossDeep Cut85points
- Indigo-banded KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Intermediate egretDeep Cut85points
- Invisible RailDeep Cut85points
- Isabelline Bush-henDeep Cut85points
- Islet KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Ivory gullDeep Cut85points
- JabiruDeep Cut85points
- JacanaDeep Cut85points
- Jack snipeDeep Cut85points
- James's flamingoDeep Cut85points
- Jameson's SnipeDeep Cut85points
- Japanese cormorantDeep Cut85points
- Japanese Criollo duckDeep Cut85points
- Japanese murreletDeep Cut85points
- Japanese Night HeronDeep Cut85points
- Japanese WagtailDeep Cut85points
- Javan Blue-banded KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Javan KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Javan PloverDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The top tier here is enormous, which tells you the reveal accepted almost anything with a genuine aquatic connection: 1451 of the 1466 recorded answers reached at least 60 points, and 1376 of them sat at 85. What separated the very top was not correctness but rarity. Only one entry, Sungrebe, reached 100 points, and it is the kind of answer most players never think of — a rare pick rather than a familiar shoreline bird. The 85-point band is packed with precise, well-documented species from every continent and every water type, from Abbott's Booby and Abdim's stork to African darter, African finfoot and African fish eagle: correct, specific, but shared by enough players to be capped below the maximum. The 74 answers at 60 points were still accepted, presumably broader or more commonly offered names. The lesson: specificity earns the base score, obscurity earns the premium.