Birds
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216 free Birds trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
70 free birds trivia questions with answers. Are you a bird enthusiast or aspiring ornithologist? Take our bird trivia quiz to test your knowledge about these fascinating feathered creatures. From majestic eagles to tiny hummingbirds, discover how much you really know about avian species, their behaviors, and habitats around the globe.
30 of 216 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which of these is the largest living bird by mass and height?
Ostrich
The ostrich is the tallest and heaviest living bird, a big male standing about 2.7 m; far too heavy to fly, it outruns danger at about 70 km/h, faster than any other animal on two legs.
Q 02Chicks of which Amazon bird hatch with claws on their wings for clambering through branches?
Hoatzin
Hoatzin chicks hatch with two claws on each wing; if threatened they drop into the water beneath the nest, then use the claws to climb back up. The claws disappear as the birds mature.
Q 03Which bird has the largest wingspan of any living bird?
Wandering Albatross
The wandering albatross's wings span more than three metres, letting it ride the wind for hours without a flap; it comes ashore only to breed and otherwise lives entirely at sea.
Q 04Besides aiding in feeding, what is a primary function of a toucan's large, colorful beak?
Releasing excess heat
Releasing excess heat: thermal cameras showed in 2009 that a toco toucan sends more blood into its bill to shed body heat as the air warms, and chokes the flow off again when it is cold.
Q 05Which long-legged wading bird feeds with its head upside down, straining its food from the water?
Flamingo
The flamingo lowers its head until the bill points backwards and upside down, then sweeps it from side to side while comb-like plates inside strain small shrimp and algae from the water.
Q 06Which bird is often ranked alongside the great apes for reasoning and problem-solving?
Raven
The raven is no slow learner: in a 2020 study, young ravens only four months old did about as well as adult chimpanzees and orangutans across a battery of reasoning tests.
Q 07What is a male duck called?
A drake
A drake is the quieter sex in the best-known ducks: the loud, classic quack belongs to the female, while he gives only a softer, raspier note.
Q 08Which large flightless bird of New Guinea and northeastern Australia has a helmet-like casque?
Cassowary
The cassowary's casque is a spongy core under a horny sheath, and its purpose is still debated; a dagger-like claw on each inner toe, driven by a powerful kick, is why it is called the world's most dangerous bird.
Q 09The pink colour of flamingos comes from which pigments in their diet?
Carotenoids
Carotenoids from the algae and brine shrimp flamingos eat are deposited in feathers and skin; captive birds fed too little carotenoid fade to pale pink even when otherwise well nourished.
Q 10What is the lump of fur and bones an owl coughs up called?
Pellet
A pellet: an owl swallows small prey whole but cannot digest the fur and bones, so hours later it coughs them up in a tight lump, which scientists pick apart to learn exactly what the bird has eaten.
Q 11Males of which bird family build and decorate elaborate stick structures purely to impress mates, never to nest in?
Bowerbird
The bowerbird male builds his bower of sticks and dresses it with bright objects purely as a stage; a female who picks him mates there, then goes off to build the real nest and raise the chicks alone.
Q 12What is the primary material that makes up a bird's feathers?
Keratin
Keratin, a tougher form of the protein in our hair and nails, builds every feather; and feathers are older than birds, having first appeared on dinosaurs that could not fly.
Q 13Which bird holds the record for the longest known non-stop migratory flight?
Bar-tailed Godwit
Q 21The extinct dodo was endemic to which island?
Mauritius
Mauritius had no predators to teach the dodo fear, which made it easy prey for sailors; but the pigs and monkeys that came ashore with them and plundered its nests are now thought to have done even more to wipe it out.
Q 22Which bird breaks open large eggs by tossing pebbles onto them?
Egyptian vulture
The Egyptian vulture walks up to an egg too big to carry off, picks up a pebble in its bill and flings it at the shell with a swing of its neck until it cracks, a rare case of tool use by a wild bird.
Q 23What are the sharp, curved claws of a bird of prey called?
Talons
Talons do the killing for most hawks, eagles and owls, which seize and pierce their prey with their feet; the hooked beak comes into play afterwards, to tear the catch apart.
The bar-tailed godwit: in 2022 a bird just five months old flew 13,560 km from Alaska to Tasmania in 11 days without landing; godwits shrink their internal organs beforehand to make room for more fat.
Q 14What bird is widely recognized as the fastest in a hunting dive?
Peregrine Falcon
The peregrine falcon climbs to a great height and then plunges in a dive called a stoop at more than 320 km/h, hitting its prey in mid-air with a clenched foot hard enough to kill on impact.
Q 15Which flightless bird is the tallest native bird of Australia?
Emu
The emu stands up to 1.9 m tall and is hard to beat: in 1932 soldiers sent with two machine guns to cull emus raiding Western Australia's wheat farms withdrew after a week, outrun by birds faster than their trucks.
Q 16Males of which New Guinea birds court females with elaborate dances, fanning ornate plumes over their backs?
Bird-of-paradise
The bird-of-paradise nearly paid for its beauty with its existence: its plumes became so fashionable on European ladies' hats that skin hunters decimated some species.
Q 17What is the scientific term for the study of birds?
Ornithology
Ornithology is one science where amateurs still matter: hobby birdwatchers send in their sightings by the million, and researchers use those records to follow how bird populations are changing.
Q 18Which New World scavenger finds dead animals largely by smell, a rare ability among birds?
Turkey vulture
The turkey vulture has an unusually large smell centre in its brain and finds fresh carcasses by scent; black vultures, poor sniffers themselves, keep an eye on it from above and follow it down to the meal.
Q 19Which of these birds lays the largest egg relative to its own size?
Kiwi
The kiwi's egg can be about a fifth of the female's weight, among the biggest for its size of any bird; in the last days before laying it leaves so little room inside her that she has to stop eating.
Q 20In which penguin species does the male incubate a single egg for over two months while the female feeds at sea?
Emperor
The emperor male balances the egg on his feet under a fold of skin for just over two months, fasting, while the female returns to the sea to feed.
Q 24The only penguin species living at, and just above, the equator is native to which island group?
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands host the only penguin found at the equator, because the cold, nutrient-rich Humboldt and Cromwell currents keep the surrounding water cool enough for a bird otherwise tied to the southern oceans.
Q 25What is a significant part of a Blue Jay's diet, especially during autumn?
Acorns
Acorns: a blue jay buries many of the ones it gathers to eat later, and the caches it never comes back for are credited with helping oak forests spread after the last ice age.
Q 26A woodpecker's tongue is so long that, when drawn in, it is stowed curled around which part of the bird?
Its skull
Its skull: the tongue can be three times the length of the bill, so at rest it is sheathed up the back of the head and round towards the eyes; shot out, its barbed, sticky tip snags ants and grubs deep in the wood.
Q 27What is the primary food source of most finches, for which their stout, conical bills are adapted?
Seeds and nuts
Seeds and nuts: a finch's cone-shaped bill works as a nutcracker, and the hawfinch's is powerful enough to split cherry stones and get at the kernel inside.
Q 28Which flightless Atlantic seabird's last confirmed pair was killed on the island of Eldey in 1844?
Great auk
The great auk was the original 'penguin': the word was first used for this northern bird, and only later passed to the unrelated look-alike birds of the far south.
Q 29What is the common term for predatory birds such as hawks, eagles, and falcons?
Raptors
Raptors: the word comes from the Latin rapere, 'to seize', a nod to how hawks, eagles and falcons grab prey with their feet.
Q 30The cave-dwelling oilbird of South America finds its way in total darkness by what means?
Echolocation
Echolocation: the oilbird steers through pitch-dark caves by the echoes of its own sharp clicks, which people can hear; it owes its name to its plump chicks, once boiled down for cooking and lamp oil.