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
- Pallas's Reed BuntingDeep Cut85points
- Palm-nut vultureDeep Cut85points
- Pantanal SnipeDeep Cut85points
- Papuan HarrierDeep Cut85points
- Papyrus gonolekDeep Cut85points
- Papyrus yellow warblerDeep Cut85points
- Paradise shelduckDeep Cut85points
- Parakeet AukletDeep Cut85points
- Parasitic jaegerDeep Cut85points
- Pectoral sandpiperDeep Cut85points
- Pekin duckDeep Cut85points
- Pel's fishing owlDeep Cut85points
- Pelagic cormorantDeep Cut85points
- Penduline titDeep Cut85points
- Persian ShearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Peruvian boobyDeep Cut85points
- Peruvian diving petrelDeep Cut85points
- Peruvian pelicanDeep Cut85points
- Peruvian Seaside CinclodesDeep Cut85points
- Peruvian TernDeep Cut85points
- PhalaropeDeep Cut85points
- Pheasant-tailed jacanaDeep Cut85points
- Philippine duckDeep Cut85points
- Philippine SwamphenDeep Cut85points
- Phoenix PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Pied avocetDeep Cut85points
- Pied HeronDeep Cut85points
- Pied kingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Pied OystercatcherDeep Cut85points
- Pied PloverDeep Cut85points
- Pied StiltDeep Cut85points
- Pied water tyrantDeep Cut85points
- Pied-billed grebeDeep Cut85points
- Pigeon guillemotDeep Cut85points
- Pilgrim gooseDeep Cut85points
- Pin-tailed SnipeDeep Cut85points
- Pincoya Storm PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Pink-backed pelicanDeep Cut85points
- Pink-eared duckDeep Cut85points
- Pink-footed gooseDeep Cut85points
- Pink-footed ShearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Pinnated BitternDeep Cut85points
- PintailDeep Cut85points
- Piping ploverDeep Cut85points
- Pitt shagDeep Cut85points
- Plain bush-henDeep Cut85points
- Plain-flanked RailDeep Cut85points
- Plumbeous ibisDeep Cut85points
- Plumbeous railDeep Cut85points
- Plumbeous water redstartDeep 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.