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
- Eastern Rockhopper PenguinDeep Cut85points
- Eastern spot-billed duckDeep Cut85points
- Eaton's PintailDeep Cut85points
- Ecuadorian RailDeep Cut85points
- Egyptian gooseDeep Cut85points
- Egyptian ploverDeep Cut85points
- Elegant ternDeep Cut85points
- Eleonora's falconDeep Cut85points
- Elliot's Storm PetrelDeep Cut85points
- Embden gooseDeep Cut85points
- Emperor gooseDeep Cut85points
- Erect-crested penguinDeep Cut85points
- Eskimo CurlewDeep Cut85points
- Ethiopian CisticolaDeep Cut85points
- Eurasian bitternDeep Cut85points
- Eurasian cootDeep Cut85points
- Eurasian curlewDeep Cut85points
- Eurasian oystercatcherDeep Cut85points
- Eurasian spoonbillDeep Cut85points
- Eurasian TealDeep Cut85points
- Eurasian WhimbrelDeep Cut85points
- Eurasian wigeonDeep Cut85points
- European golden ploverDeep Cut85points
- European shagDeep Cut85points
- European storm petrelDeep Cut85points
- Fairy martinDeep Cut85points
- Fairy prionDeep Cut85points
- Fairy ternDeep Cut85points
- Falcated duckDeep Cut85points
- Falkland steamer duckDeep Cut85points
- Fan-tailed WidowbirdDeep Cut85points
- Fasciated tiger heronDeep Cut85points
- Fea's petrelDeep Cut85points
- FernbirdDeep Cut85points
- Ferruginous duckDeep Cut85points
- Fiji PetrelDeep Cut85points
- FinfootDeep Cut85points
- Fiordland penguinDeep Cut85points
- Fish crowDeep Cut85points
- Fish eagleDeep Cut85points
- Fish owlDeep Cut85points
- Flesh-footed shearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Flightless cormorantDeep Cut85points
- Flightless steamer duckDeep Cut85points
- Fluttering shearwaterDeep Cut85points
- Fly River GrassbirdDeep Cut85points
- Flying steamer duckDeep Cut85points
- Forbes's BlackbirdDeep Cut85points
- Forbes's PloverDeep Cut85points
- Forest BitternDeep 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.