Birdwatching quiz

More questions about Birdwatching

These visible examples show the question style. LearnClash turns the full topic into ranked duels and spaced repetition.

1. 1 Easy

   Which tiny bird is famously able to fly backwards?

   Answer: Hummingbird

   Why: Hummingbirds often back away from flowers, and flying backward costs about as much oxygen as flying forward.

2. 2 Medium

   What do birders call boat trips out on the open ocean?

   Answer: Pelagic birding

   Why: Pelagic birders often use smelly fish oil to attract open-ocean wanderers like petrels and shearwaters.

3. 3 Hard

   What causes color fringing around birds in cheap binoculars?

   Answer: Chromatic aberration

   Why: Extra-low dispersion glass holds rare earth compounds that spread colors far less, so ED binoculars show almost no fringing.

4. 4 Easy

   In 1901 naturalist Edmund Selous urged watching birds instead of what?

   Answer: Shooting them

   Why: Selous told readers to lay down the gun and take up the glasses for even an hour, promising they would never wish to change back.

5. 5 Medium

   What state of lowered body temperature do hummingbirds enter at night?

   Answer: Torpor

   Why: A black metaltail hummingbird in torpor cooled to 3.3 °C, the coldest ever recorded in a bird, and its heart rate fell to as few as 40 beats per minute.

6. 6 Hard

   What feeding tactic involves stealing prey from other birds?

   Answer: Kleptoparasitism

   Why: Frigatebirds and jaegers specialize in kleptoparasitism, chasing other seabirds until they drop or regurgitate food.