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
- Plumed EgretDeep Cut85points
- Plumed whistling duckDeep Cut85points
- PochardDeep Cut85points
- Polynesian Storm PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Pomarine jaegerDeep Cut85points
- Pond heronDeep Cut85points
- PratincoleDeep Cut85points
- PrionDeep Cut85points
- Prothonotary warblerDeep Cut85points
- Providence PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Puna IbisDeep Cut85points
- Puna PloverDeep Cut85points
- Puna SnipeDeep Cut85points
- Puna tealDeep Cut85points
- Purple gallinuleDeep Cut85points
- Purple heronDeep Cut85points
- Purple sandpiperDeep Cut85points
- Purple swamphenDeep Cut85points
- Purple-crowned fairywrenDeep Cut85points
- Pycroft's PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Pygmy cormorantDeep Cut85points
- Pygmy gooseDeep Cut85points
- Radjah shelduckDeep Cut85points
- Rapa ShearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Red knotDeep Cut85points
- Red phalaropeDeep Cut85points
- Red shovelerDeep Cut85points
- Red-and-white CrakeDeep Cut85points
- Red-billed gullDeep Cut85points
- Red-billed tealDeep Cut85points
- Red-billed tropicbirdDeep Cut85points
- Red-breasted gooseDeep Cut85points
- Red-breasted merganserDeep Cut85points
- Red-capped ploverDeep Cut85points
- Red-chested FlufftailDeep Cut85points
- Red-crested pochardDeep Cut85points
- Red-faced CormorantDeep Cut85points
- Red-footed boobyDeep Cut85points
- Red-fronted cootDeep Cut85points
- Red-gartered cootDeep Cut85points
- Red-kneed dotterelDeep Cut85points
- Red-knobbed cootDeep Cut85points
- Red-legged cormorantDeep Cut85points
- Red-legged crakeDeep Cut85points
- Red-legged KittiwakeDeep Cut85points
- Red-necked avocetDeep Cut85points
- Red-necked CrakeDeep Cut85points
- Red-necked grebeDeep Cut85points
- Red-necked phalaropeDeep Cut85points
- Red-necked stintDeep 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.