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
- Newell's ShearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Nicaraguan GrackleDeep Cut85points
- Night heronDeep Cut85points
- Nkulengu RailDeep Cut85points
- Noble SnipeDeep Cut85points
- NoddyDeep Cut85points
- Nordmann's greenshankDeep Cut85points
- Northern fulmarDeep Cut85points
- Northern gannetDeep Cut85points
- Northern Giant PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Northern harrierDeep Cut85points
- Northern jacanaDeep Cut85points
- Northern lapwingDeep Cut85points
- Northern pintailDeep Cut85points
- Northern Red BishopDeep Cut85points
- Northern Rockhopper PenguinDeep Cut85points
- Northern rough-winged swallowDeep Cut85points
- Northern Royal AlbatrossDeep Cut85points
- Northern ScreamerDeep Cut85points
- Northern shovelerDeep Cut85points
- Northern Silvery KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Northern WaterthrushDeep Cut85points
- Northern Yellow WarblerDeep Cut85points
- Ochre-rumped BuntingDeep Cut85points
- Olrog's gullDeep Cut85points
- OpenbillDeep Cut85points
- Orange-bellied parrotDeep Cut85points
- Oriental darterDeep Cut85points
- Oriental pratincoleDeep Cut85points
- Oriental reed warblerDeep Cut85points
- Oriental storkDeep Cut85points
- Orinoco gooseDeep Cut85points
- Oriole BlackbirdDeep Cut85points
- OystercatcherDeep Cut85points
- Pacific black duckDeep Cut85points
- Pacific golden ploverDeep Cut85points
- Pacific gullDeep Cut85points
- Pacific KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Pacific loonDeep Cut85points
- Paddyfield warblerDeep Cut85points
- Padovana gooseDeep Cut85points
- Paint-billed CrakeDeep Cut85points
- Painted storkDeep Cut85points
- Painted-snipeDeep Cut85points
- Pale MartinDeep Cut85points
- Pale-eyed BlackbirdDeep Cut85points
- Pale-vented Bush-henDeep Cut85points
- Pallas's fish eagleDeep Cut85points
- Pallas's grasshopper warblerDeep Cut85points
- Pallas's gullDeep 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.