How well do you know birds?

This thread was inspired by "How well do you know Metazoa?" by @CheeseChameleon2007 and "How well do you know marine life?" by @DaLilFishie . Except this thread adds a little twist to it. I will post 10 questions, and whoever gets the most right, gets to make up the next set of questions. If you don't know an answer, put "idk". When you are done answering the questions, I will post your score. If two or more people get 10/10 correct, whoever answered first gets to go. If you would not like to go, you may choose anybody you like to make up the questions for you. This quiz is to see what you know and is just for fun, so please refrain from searching up the answers.


1. How many species of cassowaries are there? Name all of them.

2. When Turkey Vultures are threatened by a predator, what do they do?

3. Name the genus the Long-Tailed Whydah is in.

4. What continent has the highest density of bird species?

5. What group of bird is in the genus Ardea? Name three species.

6. What bird is nicknamed the "undertaker"?

7. What species of passerine is able to mimic the calls of 20 other bird species, and even man-made sounds?

8. I am a bird native to Southeast Asia. I have very long toes, allowing me to walk on a special type of plant. I also have a very long tail, resembling that of a well-known gamebird. What am I?

9. What species of bird is Pedro from the 2011 film Rio?

10. What bird is regularly know to dive-bomb people and bikers who come too close to its nest? (ZooChatters who live in the Land Down Under, you should know this!)

 

Sure, I'll give this a go. Can't guarantee I'll get full marks though, birds aren't really my thing.
Okay, 4 (?) cassowary species, right? One of them is extinct I think. Dwarf cassowary, Southern cassowary, Single wattled cassowary, and I'm sorry, I don't know the name of the extinct one.
Oh I know this one, It made me laugh when I read about it years ago. They vomit Semi-digested meat into their prey's eyes don't they?
I want to say it starts with a V, Vidaea?
I would imagine South America?
Oh, Ardea is a genus of herons! Seen a lot of the members of that genus for sure.
Goliath heron.
Great blue heron (seen this one in the wild)
Pied heron
Ahh... Not sure about this one? I would imagine it would be carnivorous, I'm just guessing, but Marabou stork, maybe?
Is it a specific species? Its pretty well known that Drongos can, can they?
No Idea. Junglefowl?
Spix's macaw, I learned this a while back.
Australian magpies.

 

You got 7/10! You missed #7, #8, & #9. Sorry, I cannot give out the correct answers because other people might start playing later. I'll give them out when I declare a winner. Not a bad score for a person who says birds aren't their thing!

 

7 and 8 are Lyrebird and Pheasant-tailed Jacana

 

I lost knowlegde about birds respect some years ago, when I was much obsessed with birds (in the age I registered in Zoochat and put my feathery avatar). However I think I can solve most of questions.

1. Easy, three: Casuarius casuarius, Casuarius unappendiculatus and Casuarius bennetii (double-wattled, single-wattled and dwarf)
2. First of all take off and go far, of course. But if they can't... I think vomit?
3. Easy, Vidua, like all wyhdahs and widowbirds (genus Steganura doesn't exist )
4. I'm in doubt between Asia and South America. If you consider both Americas as a single continent, then I would say America.
5. Not sure of what do you mean with "group". Ardea belongs to family Ardeidae and order Ciconiiformes (NOT Pelecaniformes! ;-) ) My three favourite species of this genus are Ardea purpurea, Ardea cocoi and Ardea melanocephala.
6. Absolutely IDK.
7. A lot of passerines can do it, from corvids to mynahs, but I guess you're talking about the best mimic of all, the lyrebird. Attemborough video about it made this feature viral to public knowledge, despite being well known much before it.
8. Extremely easy: a pheasant-tailed jacana (Hydrophasianus chirurgus), my favourite jacana species.
9. Many years passed since I saw Rio, but I think Pedro is the toco toucan that always is trying to help Blue.
10. Very easy even for non-Australians: the Australian magpie, Gymnorhina tibicen.

 

Ok, most of these have already been answered correctly; I think only q6 hasn’t been, and it is also the only one I don’t know, but I’m going to guess Marabou Stork. Btw, the Ratites volume of Oxford Bird Families does list 4 cassowary species; what is their extra one?

 

Oops, just noticed a Marabou Stork guess up thread. So all had been answered....

 

The Ciconiiformes classification you refer to is an old one, the herons have been moved from Ciconiiformes to Pelecaniformes. Now storks are the only group left in that order.

 

From memory (I'm assuming that's how we are supposed to do this:

1. 3. Northern, Southern, and Dwarf.

2. Vomit.

3. Vidua.

4. South America.

5. Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Gray Heron.

6. IDK

7. Superb Lyrebird.

8. Pheasant-tailed Jacana.

9. I don't remember which one Pedro is. Is he the Red-crested Cardinal?.

10. Australian Magpie.

 

Prepare yourself. This isn't going to be pretty.

1. 3 I think. Southern, Northern, and Dwarf. There may be more, but those are the ones in captivity.
2. Um . . . I'll just do a random guess. Open up their wings? That seems like the obvious answer, so it probably isn't that.
3. Err . . . I don't remember.
4. It's either Africa or South America. I'll go with Africa.
5. Ooh I know this one. It's herons/egrets. Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Goliath Heron.
6. Don't know
7. Superb Lyrebird?
8. Oof
9. Red-crested Cardinal probably
10. I don't know.

I warned you it wasn't going to be pretty.

 

Ok, to put my answers in order
1. Three, Northern, Southern and Dwarf ( although an extra species was listed in the Ratites volume by OUP)
2. Didn’t know the vomiting response, but once it had been mentioned I vaguely recall hearing it.
3. Vidua, but didn’t drag it up until already answered
4. Density of bird species- not a common concept if you mean species per unit area, but the real hotspots are in South America.
5. Ardea are the “typical” herons; let’s mention Humblot’s and Great-billed that I have seen wild, and White-bellied, the only species in the genus I haven’t.
6. Marabou, which was a sensible guess, but I was not sure.
7. Superb Lyrebird.
8. Pheasant-tailed Jacana
9. Wrong character; I thought Spix’s Macaw.
10. Australian Magpie.

 

You got 8/10 questions correct! You got #6 and #9 incorrect. Good job!

You got 9/10! You got #6 incorrect. Great score!

You got 5/10! You got #2, #3, #4, #6, #8, & #10 incorrect. Thanks for playing and nice effort!

You got 9/10! You missed #9. Another great score!


Both birdsandbats and Tetzoo Quizzer are tied with the highest score, which is 9/10. Our winner is birdsandbats, since he posted his answers first. Congratulations! You may now come up with 10 new bird-related questions or choose anybody you like to do it for you.

 

Congrat's Birdsandbats!

 

Oh, I forgot to post all the correct answers. Here they are:

1. Three species. Southern, Northern, & Dwarf. Four would've also been acceptable if you count the extinct Pygmy Cassowary.

2. Turkey Vultures vomit pieces of partially digested meat when threatened.

3. Vidua.

4. South America

5. Ardea. Any species from this genus would've been acceptable.

6. Marabou Stork

7. Superb Lyrebird

8. Pheasant-Tailed Jacana

9. Pedro is a Red-Crested Cardinal.

10. Australian Magpie.

 

The previous quiz was a bit too easy. This one should be a bit better but also not impossibly hard, either.

1. This species feeds almost exclusively on Wild Avacado for large portions of the year and is one of the most sought after bird species by birders.

2. The Spanish name for this near-mythical (possibly just mythical) species translates to "Royal Carpenter".

3. According to the most recent edition of Clements, how many families are there in the order Passeriformes?

4. This "great" bird is found on four continents and is often called "the most extensively studied bird".

5. This flightless bird species has two vagrant records on the west coast of North America, though it is not on the official North American list as the birds were almost certainly ship assisted.

6. Just two feathers give the breeding plumage of this African bird species one of the most striking looks in the animal kingdom, though it would be hard to tell in the dark.

7. This bird was once known as the "Woodcock Pilot", under the mistaken belief it was too small to fly great distances on its own and must ride other birds instead.

8. This cosmopolitan and largely nocturnal species is famous for taking up residence in zoos, especially in North America.

9. The Cassia Crossbill famously evolved without the presence of squirrels, but a Red Crossbill subspecies (possibly a full species) from this Canadian island did so as well.

10. Though skuas and jaegars are usually associated with saltwater, this species also occurs on freshwater.

 

The only ones I can take an educated guess at:

4: Peregrine falcon
8: Black-crowned night heron

 

1/ Umbrella Bird
5/ Flightless Cormorant
6/ Standard-winged Nightjar
7/ Goldcrest

 

One is correct.

Two are correct.

 

I'm stumped on all of them!

 

1. Horned Guan (high on my wanted list)
2. Ivory-billed Woodpecker
3. 148 (somewhere near anyway, I still need to see 20 of the HBW ones in the wild)
4. Great Crested Grebe is on 4 continents and has been very well studied ethologically, although Gallus gallus Has by far the most scientific papers written about it.
5. Certainly a penguin, and I think Humbolt Penguin
6. Standard winged Nightjar
7. Goldcrest
8. Black-crowned Night Heron
9. Labrador
10. Most species do migrate overland and have been recorded at freshwater habitats, but my answer for most likely is Long-tailed Skua.