North American Birds
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50 free North American Birds trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
North America is home to hundreds of bird species, from the songbirds at a backyard feeder to the giants that soar over western canyons. Some are so familiar they have become state symbols, cartoon characters and team mascots. Others cross whole oceans twice a year without most people ever noticing. This quiz covers the birds of the United States, Canada and Mexico. Expect questions on well-known species and the families they belong to, on state and national emblems, on migration and nesting habits, on the species that were lost, and on the people and laws that brought others back from the brink. It is written for birdwatchers, students and anyone who has ever wondered what was singing outside the window. The early questions are friendly to beginners, and the later ones will test people who keep a life list.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01US Airways Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson River in 2009 after hitting a flock of which birds?
Canada geese
Canada geese knocked out both engines, and DNA tests on the remains confirmed the species. All 155 people aboard survived the landing that became known as the Miracle on the Hudson.
Q 02Which introduced predator kills billions of US birds each year, a 2013 study estimated?
Domestic cats
Domestic cats kill between 1.3 and 3.7 billion birds a year in the United States, the review found, and cats without owners do most of the damage.
Q 03Which bird, released in New York's Central Park in 1890, has since spread across North America?
European starling
The European starling arrived when Eugene Schieffelin's acclimatisation society freed about 60 birds, and the continent's population has been put at some 150 million.
Q 04Which bird, North America's tallest, was taught a migration route by following ultralight aircraft?
Whooping crane
The whooping crane was down to 21 wild birds by 1941, so pilots later led captive-raised chicks from Wisconsin to Florida to found a second migrating flock.
Q 05Plume hunters nearly wiped out US egrets around 1900 to decorate which fashion item?
Women's hats
Women's hats carried egret plumes and sometimes whole stuffed birds. The plumes grown for courtship were the most prized, so hunters struck at nesting colonies.
Q 06The blue jay has no blue pigment, so what produces the vivid colour that people see?
Feather structure
Feather structure does the work: the inside of each feather interferes with light, and the only pigment present is melanin. Crush a blue feather and the colour disappears.
Q 07Which bird, once the most abundant in North America with flocks of billions, was extinct by 1914?
Passenger pigeon
The passenger pigeon once numbered around three billion, and one flock was said to take 14 hours to pass. The last bird, Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Q 08Which US state's bird is the California gull, said to have saved pioneer crops from crickets in 1848?
Utah
Utah honours the bird with the Seagull Monument in Salt Lake City, a tribute to the flocks that settlers credited with eating the crickets devouring their crops.
Q 09Which waterbird, famous for its wailing calls on northern lakes, appears on Canada's one-dollar coin?
Common loon
The common loon gave the coin its nickname, the loonie, when it entered circulation in 1987. The two-dollar coin that followed in 1996 was promptly dubbed the toonie.
Q 10Which hawk's scream do film-makers dub over footage of the bald eagle, whose own call is weak?
Red-tailed
The red-tailed hawk gives a hoarse, rasping scream lasting two to three seconds, and television uses it as a stock sound for almost any bird of prey.
Q 11Which North American game bird was first domesticated in Mexico and reached Europe as a farm animal?
Wild turkey
The wild turkey was tamed by native peoples of Mexico and shipped to Europe, and settlers then carried its farmyard descendants back across the Atlantic in the 17th century.
Q 12Which red songbird is the state bird of seven US states, more than any other species?
Northern cardinal
The northern cardinal is named after Catholic cardinals and their red robes, and the female sings clear, whistled songs just as the male does.
Q 13Which US president created the first national wildlife refuge, at Florida's Pelican Island, in 1903?
Theodore Roosevelt
Q 21Mountain, western and eastern bluebirds all belong to which family of songbirds, known for fine singing?
Thrushes
Thrushes include some of the continent's best singers: a male wood thrush can sing two notes at once, which gives its song a flute-like quality.
Q 22Clark's nutcracker, which finds its buried pine seeds by memory months later, is in which bird family?
Crows
Crows share the family Corvidae with jays and magpies, and Clark's nutcracker can find its buried seeds with great accuracy up to nine months after hiding them.
Q 23The kingbirds of North America belong to which group, the world's largest bird family with over 400 species?
Tyrant flycatchers
Theodore Roosevelt signed the order after two bird protectors visited him at home. Paul Kroegel, a German immigrant who had sailed out to guard the nesting birds, became the first manager.
Q 14Which artist created the 435 life-size plates of The Birds of America, first published from 1827?
John James Audubon
John James Audubon showed every bird at life size, so the pages stood more than three feet tall. A copy sold for $8.8 million in 2000, then a record for a book at auction.
Q 15Which hummingbird, the most common in eastern North America, can cross the Gulf of Mexico nonstop?
Ruby-throated
The ruby-throated hummingbird weighs about three grams, yet it can double its fat reserves and then burn them all in a 20-hour crossing with no food or water.
Q 16Which bird has North America's widest wingspan, about three metres, and vanished from the wild in 1987?
California condor
The California condor was down to 27 birds when the last wild one was caught on Easter Sunday 1987. Captive-bred birds have since been released in California, Arizona and Mexico.
Q 17The greater roadrunner, which can sprint at 20 mph across the desert, belongs to which bird family?
Cuckoos
Cuckoos count the greater roadrunner as their largest member in the Americas, and its scientific name means Californian earth-cuckoo. It eats scorpions, tarantulas and young rattlesnakes.
Q 18Which songbird is the state bird of Texas, Florida and three other southern states?
Northern mockingbird
The northern mockingbird carries its talent in its scientific name, Mimus polyglottos, the many-tongued mimic. It copies artificial and electronic noises as well as birdsong.
Q 19Which pesticide, banned from US farms in 1972, had thinned the eggshells of bald eagles and ospreys?
DDT
DDT left shells so thin that eggs often cracked before hatching. Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring stirred the public outcry that led to the ban.
Q 20Which Arctic owl, the official bird of Quebec, sometimes irrupts far to the south in large numbers?
Snowy owl
The snowy owl is often active in daylight, which is unusual for an owl, and a female named Hedwig is Harry Potter's pet in the J. K. Rowling books.
Tyrant flycatchers owe their name to the eastern kingbird, which the naturalist Mark Catesby described as the tyrant in the 1730s. The family is found almost everywhere in North and South America.
Q 24Puffins, murres and guillemots belong to which family of seabirds that resemble penguins but can fly?
Auks
Auks evolved their upright, black-and-white look separately from penguins, and every living species can fly. The one that could not, the great auk, is extinct.
Q 25Which lawn bird, the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan and Wisconsin, is named after a European bird?
American robin
The American robin was named for its reddish-orange breast, though it is not a close relative of Europe's bird. At some 370 million, it is the continent's most abundant landbird.
Q 26Which bird of eastern North America nests almost entirely in birdhouses and gourds put up by people?
Purple martin
The purple martin has leaned on people for centuries: the Cherokee hung hollowed gourds for it before Europeans arrived. It is the largest swallow in North America.
Q 27Which North American songbird never builds a nest and lays its eggs only in other birds' nests?
Brown-headed cowbird
The brown-headed cowbird never builds a nest, leaving more than 220 host species to raise its young. Its English name comes from its habit of feeding near cattle.
Q 28Which woodpecker, the largest confirmed in North America, chips rectangular holes in trees to reach ants?
Pileated
The pileated woodpecker is believed to be the model for the look of the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker, drawn by Walter Lantz. Carpenter ants are its favourite food.
Q 29From which US state do migrating godwits begin the longest nonstop flight of any bird, to New Zealand?
Alaska
Alaska is the launch point for a Pacific crossing of more than 11,000 km, flown in about eight days. The birds shrink their digestive organs to carry more fat as fuel.
Q 30Which technology lets ornithologists track the birds migrating over the United States on a given night?
Weather radar
Weather radar picks up flocks as well as rain. Birds that migrate in the dark avoid predators and overheating, then land in the morning to feed.