Birds of Prey
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50 free Birds of Prey trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Birds of prey are the hunters and scavengers of the bird world: eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, vultures and their relatives. They share hooked beaks, gripping feet and eyesight far sharper than ours, yet they have found wildly different ways to make a living, from high-speed aerial chases to cleaning up carcasses. This quiz covers the whole group. Expect questions on how raptors hunt, see, hear and fly, on well-known species from North America and around the world, on the language of falconry, on raptors in myth and popular culture, and on the conservation stories that brought some species back from the brink. It is written for birdwatchers, nature lovers and quiz fans alike. The early questions are friendly to beginners, and the later ones will test people who can name a soaring silhouette at a glance.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which bird of prey becomes the fastest animal on Earth when it dives on other birds at over 200 mph?
Peregrine falcon
The peregrine falcon has been clocked at 242 mph in a dive, and it thrives in cities, nesting on tall buildings and living largely on pigeons.
Q 02Which raptor's weak, chirping call do film-makers usually dub over with a red-tailed hawk's scream?
Bald eagle
The bald eagle makes only thin, gull-like whistles, so studios borrow a louder, fiercer voice. The United States did not make it the official national bird until December 2024.
Q 03DNA studies show that falcons are more closely related to which birds than to hawks and eagles?
Parrots
Parrots and songbirds are the falcons' nearest relatives, so a falcon's hooked beak and talons arose separately from those of a hawk.
Q 04Which Arctic owl, the species of Harry Potter's pet Hedwig, often hunts in daylight unlike most owls?
Snowy owl
The snowy owl is often active by day, especially in the Arctic summer, and its breeding success rises and falls with the supply of lemmings.
Q 05Which pesticide, banned in the US in 1972, thinned raptors' eggshells until they cracked in the nest?
DDT
DDT grew more concentrated at each step up the food chain, hitting top predators hardest, and Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring turned the public against it.
Q 06Owls can swivel their heads about 270 degrees because they are unable to do what with their eyes?
Move them in the sockets
An owl cannot move them in the sockets, because its eyes are long tubes held rigid by rings of bone, so the whole head has to turn instead.
Q 07Which everyday word for looking gaunt and worn out was first used of wild, untamed hawks in falconry?
Haggard
Haggard was the falconer's word for a bird caught as a wild adult rather than raised from a chick; the sense of a careworn human face came nearly three centuries later.
Q 08Many New World vultures cool down in hot weather by doing what to their own bare legs?
Defecating on them
Defecating on them works like sweating: the liquid waste evaporates from the scaly skin and carries heat away, a habit that several storks share.
Q 09Which large raptor do Kazakh hunters in western Mongolia train to catch foxes from horseback?
Golden eagle
The golden eagle is flown mainly at red and corsac foxes on the steppe, and it is also the bird shown on Mexico's coat of arms.
Q 10Which fish-eating raptor, found on every continent except Antarctica, plunges feet-first into water?
Osprey
The osprey can swing its outer toe backwards to grip a slippery catch with two talons in front and two behind, a trick it shares only with owls among raptors.
Q 11Which pale owl with a heart-shaped face never hoots but gives a long, eerie screech instead?
Barn owl
The barn owl has picked up folk names such as ghost owl, demon owl and church owl, thanks to its white face, silent flight and unearthly call.
Q 12What do owls cough up hours after a meal, a tight mass of the fur and bones they cannot digest?
A pellet
A pellet forms in the gizzard within six to ten hours of a meal, and collecting them shows scientists exactly what an owl has eaten without harming the bird.
Q 13What allows vultures to feed safely on rotting carcasses infected with anthrax and botulism?
Strong stomach acid
Q 21Which American scavenger sniffs out hidden carcasses, a skill so rare in birds that rivals follow it to food?
Turkey vulture
The turkey vulture homes in on a gas released as decay begins, while king vultures and black vultures cannot smell carrion from afar and simply follow it down.
Q 22Which North American raptor was down to 27 birds when the last wild ones were captured for breeding in 1987?
California condor
The California condor has the widest wingspan of any North American bird, about three metres, and zoo-bred birds have since been released in California, Arizona, Utah and Mexico.
Q 23What is the name for an eagle's lofty nest, a pile of sticks that is reused and enlarged year after year?
An eyrie
Strong stomach acid, at about pH 1, destroys germs that would kill other scavengers; where vultures decline, disease passes on more easily from dead animals.
Q 14Which Greek goddess kept the little owl as a companion, a bird later stamped on ancient silver coins?
Athena
Athena's owl became a lasting emblem of wisdom, and it appeared on so many Athenian coins that the coins themselves came to be known as owls.
Q 15Which ancient Egyptian sky god, the son of Isis and Osiris, was usually shown with a falcon's head?
Horus
Horus was said to be the sky itself: Egyptians believed the Sun was his right eye and the Moon his left as he flew across the heavens as a falcon.
Q 16Which collective noun for owls did C. S. Lewis use for the birds' night-time council in The Silver Chair?
A parliament
A parliament is both a flock of owls and a political assembly, the pun behind the chapter in which Narnia's talking owls meet to explain how a prince vanished.
Q 17Vultures and eagles gain height without flapping by circling inside which rising columns of sun-warmed air?
Thermals
Thermals form where the Sun heats the ground, and glider pilots seek out the same lift, often marked by a lone cumulus cloud at the top.
Q 18In most birds of prey, unlike most other birds, how do adult females typically differ from males?
They are larger
They are larger, a reversal of the usual pattern in birds; falconers even gave the smaller male hawk a name of his own, the tiercel.
Q 19Which long-legged African bird of prey hunts on foot and often stomps victims to death?
Secretarybird
The secretarybird stands about 1.3 metres tall, taller than any other raptor, and despite its fame as a snake killer it lives mostly on insects and small animals.
Q 20Which rainforest raptor of Latin America snatches sloths and monkeys from the treetops?
Harpy eagle
The harpy eagle has the largest talons of any living eagle and takes its name from the bird-bodied wind spirits of Greek myth.
An eyrie, also spelled aerie, gains fresh material every breeding season, and one nest in Florida grew six metres deep and weighed over two tonnes.
Q 24Which toxic metal, swallowed as bullet fragments in shot game, poisons eagles and other scavenging raptors?
Lead
Lead poisoning was found in about half the eagles sampled across 38 US states in a 2022 study, and it caused roughly one in eight of the eagle deaths examined in Michigan over 30 years.
Q 25The words 'raptor' and 'rapid' both descend from one Latin verb, which has what basic meaning?
To seize
To seize is the root sense, a fitting label for birds that grab live animals in their feet; in Latin itself a raptor was a robber or plunderer.
Q 26What is the term for crows and small songbirds ganging up to dive at and harass a perched hawk or owl?
Mobbing
Mobbing protects nests by driving a predator off, and the racket also strips the hunter of surprise, making a stealth attack impossible.
Q 27The pointed 'ears' on top of many owls' heads play no part in hearing; what are they made of?
Feather tufts
Feather tufts, found on about half of all owl species, can be raised or flattened and are thought to signal mood and intent to other owls.
Q 28Which widespread owl of the Americas, nicknamed the tiger owl, is one of the few regular predators of skunks?
Great horned owl
The great horned owl earned the nickname from early naturalists who called it a winged tiger, and it lives mainly on rabbits, hares, rats and mice.
Q 29Haast's eagle, the heaviest eagle known, died out once humans had killed off which giant New Zealand bird?
The moa
The moa was the eagle's main prey, a flightless giant weighing up to about 200 kg, which explains why the hunter itself grew so enormous.
Q 30What is a raptor's nictitating membrane, which shields each eye during a high-speed hunting dive?
A third eyelid
A third eyelid, it is see-through, so the bird keeps a target in view as it sweeps across to wipe the eye; parents also close it when feeding their chicks.