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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 [...]

The answer to this week’s quiz is one of my favorite shorebirds … “Sanderling”.  Someone once told me that it plays tag with the waves, which is the thing that most attracts me to them. The following quotes were the clues.  I’ve included the references. 1. No subspecies recognized. “The Shorebird Guide”, by , O’brien, [...]

A bit of history … the idea for this quiz started a few years ago when Corey, Mike, Will and I participated in the annual Muckrace, held in upstate New York.  While having breakfast, the day after the race, I started browsing through Mike’s various field guides.  Having some fun, I started reading sentences or [...]

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 [...]

Given the holiday season, I imagine that birders aren’t sitting by their computers taking difficult quizzes.  We’re out birding and partying. And returning those non-birding presents so we can purchase that glossy new bird guide for that trip we so very much want to go on.  And recovering from a late New Year’s Eve, followed [...]

First of all … repeat after me:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.  There, was that so hard?  It was too hard for me too!  I cheated, copying the entire post into Word and did a FIND.  And to think I [...]

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 [...]

This quiz might have been too hard.  My father even mentioned that he agreed with Jack, the first guesser in this near-impossible-to-answer quiz when Jack typed “The challenge here is not to ID the first bird, but to find it!”  So those who guessed incorrectly should feel good despite their wrongness that they managed to [...]

I’m going to pretend for a bit that the identification of drably-plumaged, migrating fall warblers moving through treetops, hiding behind leaves, and using the sun against the birder isn’t hard enough.  You know, because finding and identifying warblers with sometimes-cryptic field marks while trying to avoid the pain of warbler neck is simply too easy.  [...]

On a weekend that is, at least around here, cold, gray, and dreary, it’s entirely possible that not everyone is exercising their avian observation muscles to the fullest. Here’s a waterfowl workout for you weekend warriors… aficionados from either side of the Atlantic can and should play along: Easy, right? I’m sure you don’t need [...]