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
- Madagascar GrebeDeep Cut85points
- Madagascar jacanaDeep Cut85points
- Madagascar PloverDeep Cut85points
- Madagascar PochardDeep Cut85points
- Madagascar PratincoleDeep Cut85points
- Madagascar RailDeep Cut85points
- Madagascar SnipeDeep Cut85points
- Madagascar Swamp WarblerDeep Cut85points
- Madagascar WagtailDeep Cut85points
- Magellanic diving petrelDeep Cut85points
- Magellanic oystercatcherDeep Cut85points
- Magellanic penguinDeep Cut85points
- Magellanic ploverDeep Cut85points
- Magellanic SnipeDeep Cut85points
- Magenta petrelDeep Cut85points
- Magnificent frigatebirdDeep Cut85points
- Magpie duckDeep Cut85points
- Magpie gooseDeep Cut85points
- Magpie-larkDeep Cut85points
- Maguari storkDeep Cut85points
- Malachite kingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Malagasy HarrierDeep Cut85points
- Malagasy KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Malagasy Pond HeronDeep Cut85points
- Malayan Night HeronDeep Cut85points
- Malayan Swamp BabblerDeep Cut85points
- Malaysian Blue-banded KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Malaysian PloverDeep Cut85points
- Manchurian Reed WarblerDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove blue flycatcherDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove cuckooDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove FantailDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove finchDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove gerygoneDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove Golden WhistlerDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove honeyeaterDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove hummingbirdDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove pittaDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove RailDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove robinDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove sunbirdDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove SwallowDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove VireoDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove warblerDeep Cut85points
- Mangrove whistlerDeep Cut85points
- Manx shearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Many-colored rush tyrantDeep Cut85points
- Marbled duckDeep Cut85points
- Marbled godwitDeep 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.