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
- Black TurnstoneDeep Cut85points
- Black-backed Dwarf KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Black-backed forktailDeep Cut85points
- Black-backed SwamphenDeep Cut85points
- Black-backed Water TyrantDeep Cut85points
- Black-banded CrakeDeep Cut85points
- Black-bellied Storm PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Black-bellied ternDeep Cut85points
- Black-bellied whistling duckDeep Cut85points
- Black-billed gullDeep Cut85points
- Black-browed albatrossDeep Cut85points
- Black-browed Reed WarblerDeep Cut85points
- Black-capped donacobiusDeep Cut85points
- Black-capped kingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Black-capped petrelDeep Cut85points
- Black-collared hawkDeep Cut85points
- Black-collared SwallowDeep Cut85points
- Black-crowned night heronDeep Cut85points
- Black-faced CormorantDeep Cut85points
- Black-faced ibisDeep Cut85points
- Black-faced SheathbillDeep Cut85points
- Black-faced spoonbillDeep Cut85points
- Black-footed albatrossDeep Cut85points
- Black-fronted dotterelDeep Cut85points
- Black-fronted ternDeep Cut85points
- Black-headed DuckDeep Cut85points
- Black-headed gullDeep Cut85points
- Black-headed HeronDeep Cut85points
- Black-headed ibisDeep Cut85points
- Black-legged kittiwakeDeep Cut85points
- Black-naped TernDeep Cut85points
- Black-necked craneDeep Cut85points
- Black-necked grebeDeep Cut85points
- Black-necked stiltDeep Cut85points
- Black-necked storkDeep Cut85points
- Black-necked swanDeep Cut85points
- Black-polled YellowthroatDeep Cut85points
- Black-tailed CrakeDeep Cut85points
- Black-tailed godwitDeep Cut85points
- Black-tailed gullDeep Cut85points
- Black-tailed nativehenDeep Cut85points
- Black-throated loonDeep Cut85points
- Black-vented ShearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Black-whiskered vireoDeep Cut85points
- Black-winged PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Black-winged pratincoleDeep Cut85points
- Black-winged stiltDeep Cut85points
- Blackish cinclodesDeep Cut85points
- Blackish oystercatcherDeep Cut85points
- Blackish RailDeep 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.