Krillion Recorded answers
1,466 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 1,466
- Andean gooseDeep Cut85points
- Andean gullDeep Cut85points
- Andean IbisDeep Cut85points
- Andean LapwingDeep Cut85points
- Andean storm petrelDeep Cut85points
- Andean TealDeep Cut85points
- AnhingaDeep Cut85points
- Antarctic PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Antarctic PrionDeep Cut85points
- Antarctic ShagDeep Cut85points
- Antarctic TernDeep Cut85points
- Antipodean AlbatrossDeep Cut85points
- Apolinar's WrenDeep Cut85points
- Aquatic warblerDeep Cut85points
- Armenian gullDeep Cut85points
- Ascension frigatebirdDeep Cut85points
- Ash-throated CrakeDeep Cut85points
- Ashy Storm PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Ashy-headed gooseDeep Cut85points
- Asian dowitcherDeep Cut85points
- Asian openbillDeep Cut85points
- Atlantic PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Atlantic puffinDeep Cut85points
- Atlantic White TernDeep Cut85points
- Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrossDeep Cut85points
- Auckland shagDeep Cut85points
- Auckland TealDeep Cut85points
- Audouin's gullDeep Cut85points
- Audubon's shearwaterDeep Cut85points
- AukletDeep Cut85points
- Austral RailDeep Cut85points
- Australasian bitternDeep Cut85points
- Australasian darterDeep Cut85points
- Australasian gannetDeep Cut85points
- Australasian grebeDeep Cut85points
- Australasian ShovelerDeep Cut85points
- Australian crakeDeep Cut85points
- Australian little bitternDeep Cut85points
- Australian Painted-snipeDeep Cut85points
- Australian pelicanDeep Cut85points
- Australian pied cormorantDeep Cut85points
- Australian PratincoleDeep Cut85points
- Australian reed warblerDeep Cut85points
- Australian shelduckDeep Cut85points
- Australian TernDeep Cut85points
- Australian wood duckDeep Cut85points
- AvocetDeep Cut85points
- Aylesbury duckDeep Cut85points
- Aztec RailDeep Cut85points
- Azure GallinuleDeep 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.