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
- Tahiti PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Tahiti Reed WarblerDeep Cut85points
- Taiga bean gooseDeep Cut85points
- Tasmanian native henDeep Cut85points
- TattlerDeep Cut85points
- Tawny fish owlDeep Cut85points
- Tawny-shouldered BlackbirdDeep Cut85points
- Temminck's stintDeep Cut85points
- Terek sandpiperDeep Cut85points
- Thick-billed murreDeep Cut85points
- Thick-billed weaverDeep Cut85points
- Three-banded ploverDeep Cut85points
- Tibetan sand ploverDeep Cut85points
- Tiger heronDeep Cut85points
- Titicaca grebeDeep Cut85points
- Torrent duckDeep Cut85points
- Torrent FlyrobinDeep Cut85points
- Torrent TyrannuletDeep Cut85points
- Torrent-larkDeep Cut85points
- Torresian KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Toulouse gooseDeep Cut85points
- Townsend's ShearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Townsend's Storm PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Tricolored BlackbirdDeep Cut85points
- Tricolored GrebeDeep Cut85points
- Tricolored heronDeep Cut85points
- Trindade PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Tristan AlbatrossDeep Cut85points
- Tristram's Storm PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Tropical ShearwaterDeep Cut85points
- TropicbirdDeep Cut85points
- Trumpeter swanDeep Cut85points
- Tuamotu SandpiperDeep Cut85points
- Tufted duckDeep Cut85points
- Tufted puffinDeep Cut85points
- Tundra bean gooseDeep Cut85points
- Tundra swanDeep Cut85points
- TurnstoneDeep Cut85points
- Two-banded PloverDeep Cut85points
- Unicolored BlackbirdDeep Cut85points
- Uniform CrakeDeep Cut85points
- Upland GooseDeep Cut85points
- Vanuatu PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Variable oystercatcherDeep Cut85points
- Vega GullDeep Cut85points
- Velvet scoterDeep Cut85points
- Vermiculated fishing owlDeep Cut85points
- Virginia railDeep Cut85points
- Von Schrenck's BitternDeep Cut85points
- Wandering TattlerDeep 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.