Q 01/05

A macaw's dry, scaly tongue makes a handy tool for opening fruit because it contains what?

A) A bone

B) Tiny teeth

C) Sharp barbs

D) A sucker

Answer · why

A) A bone

A bone runs inside the tongue, stiffening it enough to tap into fruit and to shift a nut into just the right spot in the beak for cracking.

Q 02/05

Blu, the pet macaw at the heart of the 2011 animated film Rio, grows up in which US state?

A) Wisconsin

B) Alaska

C) Minnesota

D) Vermont

Answer · why

C) Minnesota

Minnesota is where the smuggled chick falls from a truck in the snowy town of Moose Lake. A girl named Linda finds him, names him and raises him as a ...

Q 03/05

The scarlet macaw, a red, yellow and blue rainforest parrot, is the national bird of which country?

A) Guatemala

B) Costa Rica

C) Panama

D) Honduras

Answer · why

D) Honduras

Honduras names the scarlet macaw its national bird, though the species ranges across the tropics as far south as Brazil.

Q 04/05

The hyacinth macaw is the longest parrot, but which flightless New Zealand bird is the heaviest?

A) Kākāpō

B) Kea

C) Takahē

D) Kiwi

Answer · why

A) Kākāpō

Kākāpō weigh about 400 grams more on average, but they never leave the ground. That makes the hyacinth macaw the largest parrot that can fly.

Q 05/05

What do hundreds of macaws gather to eat from exposed riverbanks in the western Amazon?

A) Sand

B) Snails

C) Clay

D) Figs

Answer · why

C) Clay

Clay from these banks is rich in sodium, a mineral that is scarce so far from the sea. The birds turn up almost daily and skip the visit only when it ...