Bag a Bag of Bashful Birds Trivia Quiz

Answer:

The Birds

Great tit - This small bird has a black head, white cheeks, and a bright yellow breast. It is found in woods and gardens in Europe and Asia. These clever birds can learn how to pierce the foil tops of milk bottles left on doorsteps to steal the cream.

Sandy gallito - This pale, sandy-brown bird has strong legs adapted for running along the ground. It lives in arid scrublands and deserts of western Argentina. To escape predators, it prefers sprinting exceptionally fast between bushes rather than taking flight.

Exclamatory paradise-whydah - Males have a black and chestnut body with spectacular, broad, ribbon-like tail feathers. It is native to the savannas and open woodlands of Sub-Saharan Africa. They are brood parasites, meaning they secretly lay their eggs in the nests of finches, who then raise the whydah chicks, a bit like the cuckoos.

Tropical boubou - This medium-sized bushshrike has glossy black upperparts contrasting with a clean white underside. It inhabits dense thickets, forests, and gardens throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Breeding pairs sing perfectly timed musical duets to defend their territory.

Oleaginous hemispingus - This small, inconspicuous songbird has dull olive-green upperparts and yellowish-buff underparts. It is found in the high-altitude bamboo thickets and cloud forests of the Andes Mountains. They are highly social and almost always forage in noisy, fast-moving, mixed-species flocks.

'Ou - This chunky Hawaiian honeycreeper has a thick, parrot-like bill, with males sporting a vibrant yellow head and green body. It is native to the mature native forests of Hawaii, though it is sadly now critically endangered and most probably extinct.

Inaccessible Island rail - Weighing just 30 grams, this tiny, dark-brown bird is the smallest flightless bird alive today. It lives only on Inaccessible Island, a remote, predator-free volcano in the South Atlantic Ocean. Because it evolved without land predators, it behaves more like a rodent, running through tunnels in the tussock grass.

Puffin - This unmistakable seabird features a black-and-white body, white face patches, and a massive, brightly colored orange beak. It spends the winter on the open ocean and breeds on the rocky cliffs of the North Atlantic. Their specialized bills have backward-facing spines, allowing them to hold dozens of small fish at a single time.

Little bustard - This terrestrial bird has a sandy-brown back, while breeding males develop a striking black-and-white neck collar. It lives in the open grasslands and farmlands of Southern Europe and Western Asia. During courtship, males perform a quirky display where they stamp their feet, snort, and leap into the air.

Flightless steamer duck - This heavy, robust duck has a grey body, a massive orange bill, and stunted wings that cannot lift it into the air. It lives along the rocky, marine coastlines of southern South America. To move fast, it uses its wings like a paddleboat to "steam" violently across the water, and it is known to aggressively attack other waterfowl.

Gang-gang cockatoo - This stocky slate-grey parrot is easily identified by the male's bright scarlet-red head and wispy, shredded crest. It lives in the cool, wet forests of southeastern Australia. The birds make a distinctive, bizarre contact call that sounds exactly like a creaking wooden door or a rusty hinge.

Blue-footed booby - This well-known large marine bird has a dark brown back, white front, and comical, bright turquoise-blue webbed feet. It nests on the tropical islands of the Pacific Ocean, most famously the Galápagos. Males flaunt their feet in a high-stepping courtship dance, as females prefer partners with the brightest blue color. Sherwin-Williams paint does a brisk business on Isabela Island.

Loon - The loon has a black head, a white underbelly, and a beautiful checkered back pattern. It breeds on remote, freshwater lakes across North America - especially Canada - and Northern Eurasia. They are famous for their haunting, echoing yodel calls and are so clumsy on land that they can only walk by sliding on their bellies.

Dollarbird - This bird has an iridescent greenish-blue body, a bright red beak, and distinct pale blue circles on its wings. It lives in open forests and woodlands across Australia and Asia. It gets its name from those wing spots, which look like silver dollar coins when the bird flies and performs dramatic, rolling aerial acrobatics.

Fearful owl - This powerful nocturnal predator has a yellowish-orange face disc, deep brown streaks, and piercing yellow eyes. It is highly elusive and endemic only to the Solomon Islands. Locals call it the "fearful" owl because its terrifying, blood-curdling territorial cry sounds like a human screaming in the dark.



The Not-The Birds

Huffin - Not a bird, just a sound made when I try to tackle a New York 5th floor walk-up. I hope you didn't get the huffin confused with the puffin.

Creflo Dollar - This is not a colorful avian species, but rather a prominent American televangelist and pastor who founded World Changers Church International. Based in Atlanta, Georgia. He preaches prosperity theology to massive congregations and television audiences. He drew intense public scrutiny for launching a fundraising campaign to purchase a luxury $65 million Gulfstream private jet. Don't confuse Creflo with the dollarbird.

Cleveland Duck - This is a reference to the legendary "Duck Factory," a century-old abandoned warehouse in Cleveland, Ohio that became a viral sensation for urban explorers. The building was filled with thousands of mysterious toy rubber ducks left behind from a past charity race. Sadly, the graffiti-coated landmark burned down in 2015 before I got a chance to see it. Never confuse a Cleveland with a steamer duck.

Howard - Howard the Duck is a cynical, cigar-chomping alien superhero from Marvel Comics who looks like an anthropomorphic white duck. He hails from a parallel dimension, Duckworld, but frequently finds himself trapped on Earth alongside human superheroes. Hilariously, the disastrous 1986 live-action movie, "Howard the Duck", widely considered one of the biggest box-office flops in cinema history, was the first Marvel feature film. It pre-dates "Iron Man" by 22 years! Don't confuse Howard with sandy gallito.

Kindness Duck - This is a giant, six-story-tall inflatable rubber duck managed by the Kindness Duck Project, a nonprofit organization based in Fort Worth, Texas. The floating icon travels to festivals to help charitable causes gain a larger platform. Its sole purpose is to serve as a massive visual symbol to inspire communities to practice random acts of kindness. Sadly, in this quiz, kindness is false, but being fearful is real.