Bird Brain: Over 2,400 Questions to Test Your Bird Knowledge

14  What does ‘Operation Artemis’ seek to protect in the UK?

15  What is unusual about the only mainland breeding site of Jackass Penguin (in Namibia)?

16  In 2001 far more Grey Phalaropes were recorded in Britain than in any previous year. How many?

17  And what was the previous highest score?

18  Most motmots have racquet-like tips of the central rectrices, although they are initially fully barbed along the whole shaft. How does this come about?

19  There are two species of Folige-gleaner restricted to the Tumbesian region of Ecuador and Peru, both of which are considered to be Vulnerable. Name one.

20  How many licensed ringers were there in England and Wales in 1958?

2006 A

Adrian Thomas – WildSounds

Answers: see here (#litres_trial_promo)

1  What surprising mammalian threat are Tristan Albatross chicks facing on Gough Island?

2  By what name was Cecropis daurica previously known?

3  What is the only bird to be included in the witches’ broth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth?

4  Which European country has the largest breeding population of Rock Pipits?

5  Daisy, who died on 30th October 2002, reared 24 ducklings in 12 years in her capacity as the sole breeding female of wild origin of which species?

6  Are there more species of Charadrius, Calidris or Tringa on the British List?

7  Since 2000 what has threatened the Fatuhiva Monarch?

8  What fate befell a House Sparrow that knocked over 23,000 dominoes at a Dutch televised World record domino stacking event in Leeuwarden (4 million dominoes being the target)?

9  With what bird is Saint Dominic usually associated?

10  Sergei Buturlin was the first ornithologist to discover the nest of which species at its main breeding grounds near the Kolyma River in Russia in 1905 (although a nest had been found in Greenland in 1885)?

11  Which of the following birds do not exist: Tinkerbirds, Tailorbirds, Soldierbirds and Pilotbirds?

12  What does ‘squacco’ mean?

13  Critically Endangered Sociable Lapwing/Plover chicks are being predated by which species which has spread due to the planting of shelter belts in Kazakhstan?

14  After what are Magenta Petrel and Herald Petrel named?

15  The Sulphur-breasted Parakeet Aratinga pintoi has only recently been described as a separate species because it was previously thought to be the immature of which species?

16  How many of the following have had wild populations of fewer than ten individuals: Californian Condor, Mauritius Kestrel, Whooping Crane and Chatham Island Black Robin?

17  The Quarrion or Weero is a common Australian bird. By what name is it more usually known?

18  What kind of farming slaughtered 70 Red Kites, 6 Black Kites, 45 Common Buzzards, 15 White-tailed Eagles and 376 bats among other luckless flying creatures in Brandenburg State in Germany up until August 2005?

19  How many of the 572 birds on the British List are described by eponyms (named after people)?

20  Which of the following gulls’ plumage is frequently suffused with pink: Slender-billed, Brown-hooded, Andean and Ross’s Gull?

2006 B

Colin Bradshaw – Carl Zeiss

Answers: see here (#litres_trial_promo)

1  Who wrote Swifts in a Tower?

2  What raptor, not known for nesting in trees in Britain, successfully raised a brood of three in a wire hanging-basket in a tree in Shropshire in 2005?

3  Amorous behaviour with what species led observers to believe that the Black-winged Stilt, that stayed at Titchwell for 11 years was a male (Sammy)?

4  The eggs of which species were collected at Cape Crozier in the Antarctic in 1911 by Dr Edward Wilson, Apsley Cherry-Garrard and Birdie Bowers?

5  Who has a gull and a tern named after him?

6  Are there more species of Anser, Anas or Aythya on the British List?

7  What is a cricket-teal in East Anglia?

8  Who wrote: ‘The Dodo used to walk around, And take the sun and air. The sun yet warms his native ground – The Dodo is not there.’

9  In which Red List category is the Ultramarine Lorikeet of French Polynesia?

10  How have German ornithologists been using the bug Dipetalogaster maximus for ornithological research?

11  Which of the following birds do not exist: Red Bishop, Pope’s Lovebird, Abbott’s Booby, Chaplin’s Barbet?

12  What is a popinjay?

13  The Imperial Pheasant is now known to be a hybrid of which two species?

14  How many pairs of Bald Ibises were found to be breeding in Syria in 2003?

15  What is the chief threat to the Amani Nature Reserve in Tanzania, after which the Amani Sunbird is named?

16  What was the name of the extinct large flightless pigeon that lived on Rodriguez Island in the Mascerenes until the 18th century?

17  How many of the 572 birds on the British List are identified by a single noun without any descriptive adjective (10% either way)?