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At approximately 9am on January 13, an avian act of violence occurred in a suburban backyard in eastern North America. Who was the predator and who was the prey? The following photo is your only piece of evidence beyond date, time, and location. Leave your guesses in the comments section. The first person to correctly [...]

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, [...]

I wish that this quiz were difficult enough to call it diabolical but I am afraid that you 10,000 Birds readers will be unimpressed with this offering and answer correctly and quickly.  Prove me right!  What two species are in the picture below, taken on the south shore of Long Island this month?  First to [...]

Wood-Warbler Week is finally over for 2011.  Will it come back in 2012?  We’ll see… But there is one more thing to do for Wood-Warbler Week, and that is to figure out what wood-warbler is represented in the Wood-Warbler Week logo, which was created by my wonderful sister-in-law, Stephanie Chung.  Below is the logo.  What [...]

The Diabolical Avian ID Quiz: From A to Z in Queens was pretty darn diabolical even though I tried to include a clue by using “from A to Z” in reference to the fact that all three quiz shots were taken in a zoo.  Yeah, that was radically unfair and unsporting of me but these quizzes [...]

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. [...]

First off, congratulations to all who tried the quiz, and to Mike and Jason who got it right. Recapping the quiz … I recently purchased a new book on birds and used it as the single source for this week’s quiz.  The book is from 2005 called “Identify Yourself, The 50 Most Common Birding Identification [...]

As I’ve mentioned before, clues for these quizzes are taken from bird guides and other resources.  The single resource for today’s quiz is a book I just purchased.  It is not a new book, about 6 years old. Today we are looking at two species that can be difficult to separate under typical field conditions.  [...]

A difficult quiz, no doubt.  Harder than the last quiz. I thought that the clue I made up would give it away.  Alas!  “What is black and white and red all under?”  Clearly not the riddle of my youth “what is black and white and red (read) all over?”.  The answers in elementary school were [...]

Welcome to today’s quiz.  Same format as last quiz, where I give quotes verbatim from various field guides. This quiz has a twist … one clue.  I will add clues throughout the weekend, as needed, until someone has the correct answer. “Wings are entirely black, both above and below”. As always, unless otherwise noted, bird [...]

I am not the least bit surprised that no one correctly identified what was in the quiz picture I posted on Friday.  After all, it is often difficult to identify birds when they are whole, alive and moving.  It becomes exponentially more difficult to identify one small part of a bird that is fossilized, no [...]

Here is a very quick quiz for those of you with a short attention span.  This quiz is simple, straightforward, and to the point, unlike a certain Avian Quizmaster’s confusing masterpieces.  All you have to do to answer this quiz is figure out what is in the image below and put your answer in the [...]

QUIZ ANSWER Too many zeros.  I cannot count. You write, you edit, and you edit, and you edit.  And still something gets through that is an error.  I have now learned to respect journalists a great deal more.  Writing on deadline, with many facts.  Kudos to them, a Bronx cheer for me. And so, I [...]

I guess I should apologize for this quiz up front.  Special note to Corey, Charlie and Mike … I request that you do not strip the “quizmaster” epaulettes from my decorative 10,000 Birds jacket for posting this quiz. A few years ago I flew on Southwest Airlines from my hometown near Albany NY to a [...]

Congratulations to all who participated in this quiz.  Some great answers.  Here are the clues and a bit of an explanation. 1.    No clue.  If you read the words BEFORE the clues, you will see: “working up my appetite”.  This could be better written as “whetting my appetite” perhaps? A “smallish” quiz. 2.    “A kleptomaniac’s [...]

Hello again 10,000 Birders … it’s GREAT to be back! It has been nearly two years since my last quiz.  A major house flood, two graduations, much travel and insufficient birding for me since that last post in Feb 2009.  I trust you have all been doing much more birding than me. And I know [...]

It is not quite diabolical but it is pretty close…can you identify all five of the wood-warblers small birds in this quiz on Warblings?

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 [...]