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
- Javan pond heronDeep Cut85points
- Jouanin's PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Juan Fernandez PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Junin grebeDeep Cut85points
- Kartuzy gooseDeep Cut85points
- Kelp gooseDeep Cut85points
- Kelp gullDeep Cut85points
- Kentish ploverDeep Cut85points
- Kerguelen PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Kerguelen ShagDeep Cut85points
- Kerguelen TernDeep Cut85points
- Kermadec PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Khaki CampbellDeep Cut85points
- King eiderDeep Cut85points
- King railDeep Cut85points
- King shagDeep Cut85points
- KittiwakeDeep Cut85points
- Kittlitz's MurreletDeep Cut85points
- Kittlitz's ploverDeep Cut85points
- Knob-billed duckDeep Cut85points
- Lake duckDeep Cut85points
- Lanceolated WarblerDeep Cut85points
- LapwingDeep Cut85points
- Large-billed Reed WarblerDeep Cut85points
- Large-billed ternDeep Cut85points
- Latham's snipeDeep Cut85points
- Laughing gullDeep Cut85points
- Lava gullDeep Cut85points
- Lava HeronDeep Cut85points
- Laysan albatrossDeep Cut85points
- Laysan DuckDeep Cut85points
- Lazuli KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Leach's storm petrelDeep Cut85points
- Least AukletDeep Cut85points
- Least bitternDeep Cut85points
- Least GrebeDeep Cut85points
- Least sandpiperDeep Cut85points
- Least Storm PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Least ternDeep Cut85points
- LeConte's sparrowDeep Cut85points
- Lesser adjutantDeep Cut85points
- Lesser black-backed gullDeep Cut85points
- Lesser crested ternDeep Cut85points
- Lesser fish eagleDeep Cut85points
- Lesser flamingoDeep Cut85points
- Lesser FrigatebirdDeep Cut85points
- Lesser jacanaDeep Cut85points
- Lesser KiskadeeDeep Cut85points
- Lesser moorhenDeep Cut85points
- Lesser NoddyDeep 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.