You are browsing the archives of diabolical.

You all know the drill. There are three images of birds or parts of birds below and your job is to figure out what they are. Please use the complete common name of each species and indicate which image correlates to each of your answers when you put them in the comments. The winner gets [...]

It has been quite some time since the last diabolical quiz and this quiz will more than make up for lost time.  Each and every image in this quiz was taken in the last week in Queens, New York.  You will never guess all three images correctly no matter how hard you try.  But if, [...]

It has been quite some time since the last of the 10,000 Birds diabolical quizzes.  With Jory serving as our able Avian Quizmaster there seems to be less pressure to exercise the thinking parts of our readers’ brains so Mike and I end up serving mostly pablum instead of the difficult to swallow, absurdly impossible, diabolical quizzes. [...]

Well played, well played all around.  Give yourselves a hand, birders.  Though it took a little prodding on Facebook several of you found the intestinal fortitude to risk looking foolish and being mocked by guessing the answers to the Diabolical Fall Migration Quiz.  Surprisingly, though at least one quiz-taker thought the quiz was indeed diabolical, [...]

After the last quiz, which proved to be not-at-all diabolical, I vowed to make the next one a doozy.  And I think I have succeeded.  There are four images below, all of which are migrant birds that have come through Queens in the last week.  Your task is to figure out which species is in [...]

I somehow think that this quiz will not be diabolical enough.  Or maybe it will be too diabolical.  I tend to misjudge these things, especially when my diabolicalibrator is in the shop.  Anyway, you know the drill.  Identify the birds in each picture in the comments.  First to get them all right wins the eternal [...]

It has been nearly a week since the Flying Feeder Birds Diabolical Quiz was posted so I offer my apologies for the slightly late posting of the answers.  Though, in my defense, not many of our usually intrepid 10,000 Birds readers dared to guess the identities of the birds in the three images provided. Oh [...]

Just plain feeder birds are too easy for 10,000 Birds readers to identify, even in diabolical format, so this diabolical identification quiz features flying feeder birds!  The three pictures below all depict feeder birds doing that activity for which birds are known and envied, flying!  Can you name what bird is in each of the [...]

First off, no, we will not be eating birds nor looking at birds that are about to be eaten in this quiz.  Instead, we will be looking at images of birds on porcelain plates that I saw in the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a recent visit.  Let me state for the record that I [...]

I am not too sure how difficult this quiz is but I guess we will quickly find out.  Here is a single picture of a single bird and your job is to guess what it is in the comments.  Obviously guesses like “duck” of “goose” are not specific enough (literally: we are looking for a [...]

“Diabolical to the Extreme!” was an apt name for the latest quiz, it turned out, mostly because the most any single person managed to get correct was three birds out of five. Nate, Donna, and noflickster managed that feat and will split the prize of a life bird per month in 2010, so each will [...]

Though there is a long history of diabolical quizzes on 10,000 Birds it has been quite some time since we had one.   And though I have great confidence in those who faithfully follow the blog I think this one quiz might be a bit too diabolical for even the most knowledgeable of 10,000 Birds [...]

I thought that this quiz might be a bit easier than previous diabolical identification quizzes and I think I was right.  Not that I am trying to downplay the sheer brilliance of Jason, who managed to build off of Jochen‘s two-and-a-half correct answers and get all four right (amazing, simply amazing)!  Maybe my diabolicity is [...]

Ah, the first day of September.  The air was crisp, clean and cool after overnight northerly winds, and the trees in Forest Park were alive with migrant wood-warblers that had been a couple of hundred miles north a mere twelve hours earlier.  As I strolled through the park the high-pitched twitterings of a big flock [...]

As promised, it is time for the answers to A Diabolical Quick Quiz which was posted way back on Sunday.  I must say that it was far more diabolical than I thought it would be, with only one of the three questions being answered completely correctly, though one could argue that the third was also [...]

All of the pictures here were taken at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge today.  Please leave your guesses as to what species are depicted in the first two shots in the comments.  For the third picture I am just asking for the total number of species in the picture but if you want to list them, [...]

Disappointing. That is the only word I can come up with to describe the answers provided by the folks who guessed at the identities of the birds in Yet Another Diabolical Bird ID Quiz. Sure, Jason, overlook, and bevson each managed to get two out of four correct, but that is still a failing grade [...]

Yes, it is time once again for that most dreaded of 10,000 Birds exercises, the Diabolical Bird ID Quiz. This time four small portions of passerines have been selected for your best guesses. The only clues you get are that all the pictures were taken in New York in the month of May. As is [...]

It is time to announce for the second time the results of the Diabolical Bird ID Quiz, seeing as the first answers post disappeared into the ether of the internets. I am happy to report that both John of A DC Birding Blog and Jochen of Bell Tower Birding earned the respect and admiration of [...]

Good luck on this one. All of the pictures were taken at my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Paul’s house in Saugerties, New York, this past weekend. These are birds at bird feeders and they were photographed at close range with my macro lens. Can you get all three? First to do so will earn the [...]