Do you know an owl from an albatross? Test your bird knowledge in this quiz

The Australian pelican, pelecanus conspicillatus, is found in Australian coastal areas. It dips its oversized bills into the water to catch fish. Photograph: Alamy

1. Which of the following is not a real Australian bird?

   1. Howard’s duck

   2. Latham’s snipe

   3. Bourke’s parrot

   4. Abbott’s booby

2. What Australian bird has a sharp, five-inch toe that is capable of disembowelling you?

   1. Emu

   2. Bustard

   3. Cassowary

   4. Ibis

3. What has been the most commonly seen bird every year of BirdLife Australia’s Aussie Backyard Bird Count since 2014?

   1. Australian magpie

   2. Rainbow lorikeet

   3. Noisy miner

   4. Common myna

4. In what country does Australia’s welcome swallow spend the winter?

   1. Papua New Guinea

   2. Philippines

   3. England

   4. Australia

5. Which “Australian” bird is not endemic to Australia?

   1. Australian brush-turkey

   2. Australian raven

   3. Australian bustard

   4. Australian logrunner

6. Which migratory Australian seabird washed up in their thousands on the Alaskan coast earlier this year?

   1. Short-tailed shearwater

   2. Little penguin

   3. Providence petrel

   4. White-faced storm-petrel

7. What is the smallest Australian bird?

   1. Silvereye

   2. Weebill

   3. White-winged fairy-wren

   4. Zebra finch

8. What species was “karak”, the mascot of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games?

   1. Sulphur-crested cockatoo

   2. Galah

   3. Gang-gang cockatoo

   4. Red-tailed black-cockatoo

9. What bird has been observed starting fires in order to flush out its prey?

   1. Black kite

   2. Straw-necked ibis

   3. Black-breasted buzzard

   4. Galah

10. “Custard head” is the unfortunate colonial name for which species?

    1. Australian white ibis

    2. Sulphur-crested cockatoo

    3. Brown-headed honeyeater

    4. Pale-headed rosella

11. As of 2019, what is the only species of bird known to have gone extinct on the Australian mainland?

    1. Night parrot

    2. Paradise parrot

    3. Orange-bellied parrot

    4. Golden-shouldered parrot

12. Which Australian bird is known to “kidnap” the young of other members of its species?

    1. White-winged chough

    2. Bell miner

    3. Wedge-tailed eagle

    4. Great bowerbird

13. After the supply ship Sirius was wrecked off Norfolk Island in 1790, Australia’s second British settlement would have starved to death if it wasn’t for which hapless species of breeding seabird?

    1. Masked booby

    2. Sooty tern

    3. Australian pelican

    4. Providence petrel

14. What percentage of magpies swoop?

    1. 10%

    2. 20%

    3. 30%

    4. 50%

15. Which of these birds does not build a mound to incubate its eggs?

    1. Malleefowl

    2. Brolga

    3. Brush-turkey

    4. Orange-footed scrubfowl

16. Which of the following is a native Australian bird?

    1. Eurasian coot

    2. Eurasian magpie

    3. European goldfinch

    4. European greenfinch

17. Riflebirds are part of which more famous bird family?

    1. Birds-of-paradise

    2. Bowerbirds

    3. Hummingbirds

    4. Lyrebirds

18. The glossy black-cockatoo exclusively eats the seeds of which type of tree?

    1. Eucalypts

    2. Banskias

    3. She-oaks

    4. Wattles

19. The booming call of which bird is thought to have inspired the bunyip myth?

    1. Brolga

    2. Australasian bittern

    3. Australian bustard

    4. Emu

20. The word “cockatoo” is thought to have originated from which language?

    1. English

    2. Dutch

    3. Malay

    4. Noongar

Solutions

1:A - Latham's snipe, Bourke's parrot and, yes, even Abbott’s booby are all actually real Australian birds. The Abbott's booby is an endangered seabird that only nests on Christmas Island., 2:C - Earlier this year, a Florida man was kicked to death by the southern cassowary he kept in captivity., 3:B - In 2018, twice as many rainbow lorikeets were recorded as the next most common bird, the noisy miner., 4:D - Contrary to popular belief, the welcome swallow does not migrate. There is some movement north in winter but that is wholly within Australia., 5:C - The Australian bustard also occurs in the Trans-Fly area of New Guinea. , 6:A - Scientists suspect that the deaths of tens of thousands of seabirds in the Bering Sea are due to warming waters linked to climate change that make their prey harder to find. , 7:B - The Weebill is no longer than 9cm., 8:D - There are only around 1,500 red-tailed black-cockatoos left in south-western Victoria and south-east South Australia., 9:A - Long known to Indigenous observers, the black kite picks up burning sticks from bushfires and carries them to a new site where it drops them to start a new fire., 10:D - The pale-headed rosella has a yellowish head with a white cheek, as much vanilla slice as custard tart., 11:B - Last verified sighting of the paradise parrot was in 1927 inland from Bundaberg. , 12:A - White-winged choughs have been observed stealing the offspring from other chough families to bolster the strength of their family groups. The new recruits are thought to be brought in to help raise the new generation of chough chicks., 13:D - An estimated one million birds were slaughtered to feed the Norfolk Island population, leading to the bird’s extinction on the island. Luckily another population survived on Lord Howe Island and now a few pairs of providence petrels have returned to a small island off Norfolk., 14:A - Most studies show that it is only 10% of male magpies (and it is almost always the males) that swoop, and generally only when they have chicks in the nest., 15:B - The other three belong to the megapode family which use their large feet to scrape a mound of vegetation that provides heat as it decomposes to keep the eggs warm., 16:A - The Eurasian coot is a waterbird found across Africa, Eurasia and Australia. The other three are introduced or have hitched a ride on ships., 17:A - The magnificent, Victoria’s and paradise riflebirds occur in the rainforests along the east coast and, like their better-known relatives, they have elaborate courtship displays., 18:C - Glossy-blacks have one of the most limited diets of any bird., 19:B - Hidden away in dense reedbeds, male bitterns emit a far-carrying lowing across the wetlands., 20:C - The English word cockatoo comes originally from the Malay word, via Dutch. Several species of cockatoo are found on islands north of Australia with the yellow-crested cockatoo reaching Lombok and Sulawesi.

Scores

1. 18 and above.

   Uber twitcher. Be prepared for people to avoid you at parties.

2. 13 and above.

   Impressive. On the verge of being a true bird-nerd.

3. 7 and above.

   Not too bad. Keep looking up!

4. 0 and above.

   Hmm, looks like you don't know your owl from your albatross.