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
- Brown-and-yellow MarshbirdDeep Cut85points
- Brown-cheeked RailDeep Cut85points
- Brown-chested MartinDeep Cut85points
- Brown-headed gullDeep Cut85points
- Brown-hooded gullDeep Cut85points
- Brown-throated martinDeep Cut85points
- Brown-winged KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Bryan's ShearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Buff Orpington duckDeep Cut85points
- Buff-banded railDeep Cut85points
- Buff-bellied pipitDeep Cut85points
- Buff-necked IbisDeep Cut85points
- Buff-winged CinclodesDeep Cut85points
- BuffleheadDeep Cut85points
- Buffy fish owlDeep Cut85points
- Buller's AlbatrossDeep Cut85points
- Buller's ShearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Bulwer's petrelDeep Cut85points
- Cabot's ternDeep Cut85points
- Cackling gooseDeep Cut85points
- California gullDeep Cut85points
- Call duckDeep Cut85points
- Campbell AlbatrossDeep Cut85points
- Campbell shagDeep Cut85points
- Campbell tealDeep Cut85points
- CanvasbackDeep Cut85points
- Cape Barren gooseDeep Cut85points
- Cape cormorantDeep Cut85points
- Cape gannetDeep Cut85points
- Cape ShovelerDeep Cut85points
- Cape tealDeep Cut85points
- Cape Verde shearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Cape Verde Storm PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Cape Verde WarblerDeep Cut85points
- Cape wagtailDeep Cut85points
- Capped heronDeep Cut85points
- Carruthers's CisticolaDeep Cut85points
- Caspian gullDeep Cut85points
- Caspian ternDeep Cut85points
- Cassin's AukletDeep Cut85points
- Cattle egretDeep Cut85points
- Cayuga duckDeep Cut85points
- Cerulean KingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Cetti's warblerDeep Cut85points
- Chatham AlbatrossDeep Cut85points
- Chatham Island oystercatcherDeep Cut85points
- Chatham petrelDeep Cut85points
- Chatham shagDeep Cut85points
- Chestnut RailDeep Cut85points
- Chestnut tealDeep 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.