Question master

Tips on compiling a Christmas pub quiz to entertain your birding friends.

CHRISTMAS is a great time to host a bird quiz, which can be held as a virtual event. Several successful bird quizzes have taken place online recently, such as the Birders’ Pub Quiz, organised by some enterprising Norfolk birders. Here are some ideas for setting up your own quiz and finding some good questions.

First decide how the quiz will be held. With many of us not able to gather in groups inside, a virtual quiz could be your best option. Zoom is easy to download and run, and setting up a meeting for a group is simple. The free version only allows a meeting for 40 minutes which may not be long enough. But you can always have a second meeting to run through the answers. The ability to share screens means that pictures can be used.

Twitter is also a good platform and a quiz can be held with or without video – picture and sound rounds can be set up separately, on YouTube for example. For a small group, FaceTime or WhatsApp can be used.

Work out the format. It could be 20-30 separate questions, or it could be broken down into rounds, with five or six questions per round. Each round can cover a different topic and should include at least one on general knowledge. You might want to include some multiple-choice questions. It is usual to give the answers at the end of the quiz, rather than the end of each round.

Set some rules. With virtual quizzing there has to be an element of trust. Choose a maximum number of people in a team, anywhere from four to six. Decide a rough amount of time for people to answer before moving onto the next question – this can be varied to allow for difficulty of the questions. No using phones or reference books to answer.

Successful quizzing depends on a good set of questions. When looking for questions, resist the temptation to just copy them from others. Always double check the answers to make sure they are correct. If challenged on an answer, be ready to give your source and to stick to your guns.

The questions should be challenging but not too hard. Have a mix of easy, medium and hard ones. Also aim for a good mix of topics. You might want to have a theme: will the questions be on just British birds, a particular family such as warblers, or all world’s birds? See the box for some tips on what questions to set. Chris Harbard

Make sure your questions cover a range of topics. You might want to include rounds on endemics like this Black-and-gold Tanager (this photo) and well-known birders such as artist Robert Gilmore (below).