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
- Common yellowthroatDeep Cut85points
- Congo MartinDeep Cut85points
- Cook Reed WarblerDeep Cut85points
- Cook's petrelDeep Cut85points
- Cory's shearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Coscoroba swanDeep Cut85points
- Cotton pygmy gooseDeep Cut85points
- Crab-ploverDeep Cut85points
- CrakeDeep Cut85points
- Crane hawkDeep Cut85points
- Craveri's MurreletDeep Cut85points
- Cream-winged CinclodesDeep Cut85points
- Crested AukletDeep Cut85points
- Crested duckDeep Cut85points
- Crested ibisDeep Cut85points
- Crested kingfisherDeep Cut85points
- Crested PenguinDeep Cut85points
- Crested ShelduckDeep Cut85points
- Crowned cormorantDeep Cut85points
- Crowned craneDeep Cut85points
- Crozet ShagDeep Cut85points
- Cuban Black HawkDeep Cut85points
- CurlewDeep Cut85points
- Curlew sandpiperDeep Cut85points
- Curve-billed ReedhaunterDeep Cut85points
- Dalmatian pelicanDeep Cut85points
- Damara ternDeep Cut85points
- Dark-bellied CinclodesDeep Cut85points
- Demoiselle craneDeep Cut85points
- Dendermonde duckDeep Cut85points
- Desertas petrelDeep Cut85points
- Deshi duckDeep Cut85points
- Diademed sandpiper-ploverDeep Cut85points
- Dimorphic EgretDeep Cut85points
- DipperDeep Cut85points
- Diving petrelDeep Cut85points
- Dja River Scrub WarblerDeep Cut85points
- Dolphin gullDeep Cut85points
- Dot-winged CrakeDeep Cut85points
- DotterelDeep Cut85points
- Double-banded ploverDeep Cut85points
- Double-crested cormorantDeep Cut85points
- DowitcherDeep Cut85points
- Drab Water TyrantDeep Cut85points
- DunlinDeep Cut85points
- Dusky moorhenDeep Cut85points
- Dwarf bitternDeep Cut85points
- Eastern curlewDeep Cut85points
- Eastern Marsh HarrierDeep Cut85points
- Eastern reef egretDeep 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.