5 Assume an owl starts with its head facing straight forward, what is the approximate amount it can rotate its head in one direction?
A - 360 degrees
B - 90 degrees
C - 180 degrees
D - 270 degrees
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6 Flamingos are known for their distinctive bright pink color. Why are they pink?
A - Their diet
B - Blood vessels run through their feathers
C - There are pink parasites that live on their feathers.
D - They roll around in pink foliage.
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7 Birds have how many chambers in their hearts?
A - 3
B - 4
C - 2
D - 6
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8 Puffins are a popular bird found in the north Atlantic ocean. About 60% of all puffins breed on or near one island nation. What island nation is that?
A - Cuba
B - Ireland
C - Iceland
D - Madagascar.
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9 Unlike most birds, vultures have featherless heads, why do most vultures have featherless heads?
A - To prevent overheating
B - To remain clean while eating
C - They pull them off one another when competing for mates.
D - To prevent getting caught when sticking their heads in tree holes
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10 Which of the following features of a bird's body structure is key to it being able to fly?
A Having no liver or kidneys
B - Having zero body fat
C - Having no bones, only cartilage
D - Having hollow bones
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11 The common swift, a relatively small bird (about 6.5 inches long) holds the record for the amount of time it can spend in the air without landing. Approximately how long can a common swift fly without landing?
A - 30 days
B - 300 days
C - 150 days
D - 75 days
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12 Some Toucans have beaks that makeup one-third of their body length. What is the purpose of the Toucan's extremely large beak?
A - It helps to regulate their body temperature.
B - They use it to store food.
C - Each one is unique so other birds can identify them.
D - It gives them leverage to crack nuts.
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13 In parts of Asia, bird's nest soup is a delicacy made from the nest of Swiftlets, small swift-like birds. What are these nest made of?
A - Bird saliva
B - Bird feces
C - Rare water plants
D - Recycled eggshells
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14 Owls have special fringed feathers at the tips of their wings called flutings. What is the purpose of these feathers?
A - To attract females
B - To pick up potential prey
C - To keep their young warm
D - To allow the owl to fly silently
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15 The Bassian Thrush, a very ordinary-looking bird has a very unique way of locating worms to eat. What do they use to find worms?
A - Singing
B - Flatulence
C - Burrowing underground
D - Having a flexible worm-like beak
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16 All of the following are characteristics of Emperor Penguins EXCEPT one, which one is that?
A - They can dive to depths of 10,000 feet when hunting.
B - The males incubate the eggs.
C - They spend their entire life in Antarctica.
D - They are the largest of all penguin species.
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17 Ostriches, the fastest running two-legged animal on the planet, have unique feet. How many toes do ostriches have on each foot?
A - 4
B - 2
C - 3
D - 5
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18 A woodpecker's head can experience up to 100 g's of force during impact, a force deadly to humans. All of the following features help woodpeckers prevent concussions or other serious brain injuries when pecking EXCEPT one? Which one is NOT a brain-saving feature?
A - A tongue that wraps around the brain
B - A lack of empty space between the brain and the skull
C - A highly compressible beak
D - Spongy bone surrounding the skull
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19 This African bird is named after a human job occupation. Can you guess what it is?
A - The mime bird
B - The waiter bird
C - The secretary bird
D - The magician bird
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Answers
1 C. Hummingbirds have extremely high metabolisms, breathing rates, and heart rates in addition to being the only bird able to fly backwards.
2 B With wingspans reaching nearly 12 feet, the Wandering Albatross has the largest wingspan of any living bird species.
3 B The Red-tailed Hawk has vision that is 8 times better than that of humans, or what would be considered 20/2.5 vision. Meaning at 20 ft they can see what a normal human can see at 2.5 feet.
4 B The anhinga is a bird that doesn't have waterproof wings so it needs to dry its wings after being underwater.
5 D From straight forward, most owls can rotate their heads a maximum of 270 degrees. If they started with it twisted one way, they could swing it back 540 degrees.
6 A For flamingos, it turns out you are what you eat. The high levels of carotenoids in their diet leads to their pink color.
7 B Birds, like humans, have 4 chambered hearts.
8 C Approximately 60% of all puffins breed on or near Iceland.
9 C Vultures are scavengers, eating any food they can and often times eating the leftovers of other carnivores. A featherless head helps them stay clean from dangerous bacteria.
10 D Birds have hollow bones, making it easier for them to fly.
11 B The common swift has been tracked flying for periods over 10 months!
12 B While there has been some debate over the years, recent studies have shown that the toucan's beak plays an important role in regulating the temperature of the bird during hot days in the tropics.
13 A Bird's nest soup is made from nests that swiftlets make from their spit. The difficulty in harvesting the nests and their small size make it one of the most expensive things consumed anywhere in the world.
14 D Sounds made by things moving through the air is usually caused by turbulence. Owl flutings break up the air causing turbulence to only occur in very small and disperse amounts (known as micro-turbulence), thus making their flight nearly silent.
15 B The Bassian thrush farts to startle worms and other bugs into revealing their location.
16 A Emperor penguins are amazing birds, but they can only dive up to 1,500 feet.
17 B Odd as it may seem, ostriches only have 2 toes on each foot.
18 C A woodpecker's beak is fairly rigid and not able to compress on impact. All the others are features of woodpeckers that help save their brains.
19 C The Secretary bird is a large, mostly terrestrial bird of prey. Endemic to Africa, it is usually found in the open grasslands and savanna of the sub-Saharan region.
So, how did you do? I surprised myself for getting most of them right. Apparently, I carry around a strange amount of bird trivia in my head that I didn’t even know was there. I think quizzes are fun and I hope you enjoyed this one.
What else is going on in your birding world today? Do share!