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
- Royal ternDeep Cut85points
- Ruddy CrakeDeep Cut85points
- Ruddy duckDeep Cut85points
- Ruddy kingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Ruddy shelduckDeep Cut85points
- Ruddy turnstoneDeep Cut85points
- Ruddy-breasted CrakeDeep Cut85points
- Ruddy-headed gooseDeep Cut85points
- Rufescent tiger heronDeep Cut85points
- RuffDeep Cut85points
- Rufous Crab HawkDeep Cut85points
- Rufous fishing owlDeep Cut85points
- Rufous-backed Dwarf KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Rufous-bellied heronDeep Cut85points
- Rufous-chested DotterelDeep Cut85points
- Rufous-faced CrakeDeep Cut85points
- Rufous-necked Wood RailDeep Cut85points
- Rufous-sided CrakeDeep Cut85points
- Rufous-throated dipperDeep Cut85points
- Rufous-winged CisticolaDeep Cut85points
- Rush warblerDeep Cut85points
- Russet-naped Wood RailDeep Cut85points
- Rusty blackbirdDeep Cut85points
- Rusty-flanked CrakeDeep Cut85points
- Sabine's gullDeep Cut85points
- Sacred ibisDeep Cut85points
- Sacred kingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Saddle-billed storkDeep Cut85points
- Saffron-cowled BlackbirdDeep Cut85points
- Saipan Reed WarblerDeep Cut85points
- Sakalava RailDeep Cut85points
- Sakhalin Grasshopper WarblerDeep Cut85points
- Saltmarsh sparrowDeep Cut85points
- Salvadori's TealDeep Cut85points
- Salvin's AlbatrossDeep Cut85points
- Salvin's PrionDeep Cut85points
- Sand martinDeep Cut85points
- Sand ploverDeep Cut85points
- Sand-colored NighthawkDeep Cut85points
- SanderlingDeep Cut85points
- Sandwich ternDeep Cut85points
- Sanford's Sea EagleDeep Cut85points
- Sargasso ShearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Sarus craneDeep Cut85points
- Saunders's gullDeep Cut85points
- Saunders's TernDeep Cut85points
- Savi's warblerDeep Cut85points
- Scaly-sided merganserDeep Cut85points
- Scarlet-headed blackbirdDeep Cut85points
- ScaupDeep 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.