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
- Blacksmith lapwingDeep Cut85points
- Blakiston's fish owlDeep Cut85points
- Blue craneDeep Cut85points
- Blue duckDeep Cut85points
- Blue NoddyDeep Cut85points
- Blue PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Blue whistling thrushDeep Cut85points
- Blue-billed duckDeep Cut85points
- Blue-billed TealDeep Cut85points
- Blue-billed white ternDeep Cut85points
- Blue-black KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Blue-eared kingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Blue-winged GooseDeep Cut85points
- Blue-winged tealDeep Cut85points
- BluethroatDeep Cut85points
- Blunt-winged WarblerDeep Cut85points
- Blyth's KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Boat-billed heronDeep Cut85points
- Boat-tailed GrackleDeep Cut85points
- Bogota RailDeep Cut85points
- Bonaparte's gullDeep Cut85points
- Bonin PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Bornean ForktailDeep Cut85points
- Bounty shagDeep Cut85points
- Bourbonnais gooseDeep Cut85points
- Boyd's ShearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Brahminy kiteDeep Cut85points
- Brandt's CormorantDeep Cut85points
- BrantDeep Cut85points
- Brazilian merganserDeep Cut85points
- Brazilian tealDeep Cut85points
- Brazza's MartinDeep Cut85points
- Brecon Buff gooseDeep Cut85points
- Bridled ternDeep Cut85points
- Bristle-thighed curlewDeep Cut85points
- Bristled grassbirdDeep Cut85points
- Broad-billed PrionDeep Cut85points
- Broad-billed sandpiperDeep Cut85points
- BrolgaDeep Cut85points
- Bronze-winged DuckDeep Cut85points
- Bronze-winged jacanaDeep Cut85points
- Brown boobyDeep Cut85points
- Brown CrakeDeep Cut85points
- Brown dipperDeep Cut85points
- Brown fish owlDeep Cut85points
- Brown noddyDeep Cut85points
- Brown pelicanDeep Cut85points
- Brown SkuaDeep Cut85points
- Brown tealDeep Cut85points
- Brown Wood 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.