Answers & solutions
Check your answers against our explanations. Remember, there are no ‘trick’ birds or extreme rarities among these...
BIRD 1
Here is an interesting looking swimming bird; sort of unfamiliar, yet familiar at the same time. It is a compact sort of bird, with the wrong bill shape for a duck. The neck also looks thick and short for a diving duck. The black bill is medium length and goes to a (slightly hooked) point, looking almost like the bill of a gull or even a corvid. This bill suggests the bird could be a diver (but surely not with that ‘short’ thick neck!), or even better, a guillemot. Even in winter, though, a (Common) Guillemot has a blackish crown and solid black upperparts and mainly white underparts. There is another guillemot species, though, the Black Guillemot, which sheds its largely black plumage in winter, to look just like this bird: a Black Guillemot.
Key features
Compact, short-necked swimming bird Whitish head and underparts Black/grey/white back, black flight feathers Large white patch in wing
BIRD 2
There are two swimming birds in this photograph, which look pretty similar, although not with the same plumage. The flattened ‘duck-like’ bills suggest these are ducks! And their big-headed structure and patterns suggest we are looking at Aythya diving ducks, here (not eg. Goldeneye, Eider, scoters or mergansers). The right hand bird has the distinctive black-and-white plumage (including white flanks) and nape crest of a drake Tufted Duck. The head of the left bird looks too rounded for a Tufty. Also the bill is largely blue-grey, with black only at the ‘nail’ (tip). The head, breast and tail end are dark brown and the flanks and back are finely barred or vermiculated, making them look grey. This is a female Scaup and the right bird a drake Tufted Duck.
Key features
Right bird: b/w with a shaggy crest
Left bird: dark brown and grey, with white ‘blaze’
Left bird: rounded head, very little black on bill tip Left bird: vermiculations make flanks and back look grey
BIRD 3
Here is a diving bird caught in the act of diving from the surface. Some of the features (notably the bill and front of the head) are underwater. But there is plenty enough on show here to identify this bird. Plumage-wise, this bird is black-and-white. The head looks black, with a patch of white (which looks to be oval in shape, but is partly underwater) below and just forward of the distinctive yellow eye. The head has a clean contact with the short, pure white neck which is continuous with the white belly and flanks. The back appears to be black and the wings striped white and black. Finally, the legs and feet are bright orange. This combination the plumage and ‘soft parts’ can only be a drake Goldeneye
(a well named bird).
Key features
Black head, golden eye, white face patch White belly and flanks
Black back, ‘striped’ wings Orange feet
BIRD 4
Sometimes, we are just too kind to you, and make these ID Challenges too easy. Still, everyone wants to give themselves points in a quiz! Or perhaps the half-submerged bird fooled you? Of course not! This bird is clearly making a bit of a splash, as if it had dived from the air, or from a perch, not from the surface of the water. Indeed, those little red unwebbed feet (on tiny legs) are not the limbs of a surface swimming bird. It is the colours of this bird which are the real giveaway: bright orange on all the visible underparts, from the belly, flanks and undertail (and even on the underwing coverts) to the breast. This is in strong contact with the bright turquoise blue of the upper tail and rump, a similar colour seen on the leading edge and flight feathers of the wings. This is a diving Kingfisher.
Key features
Orange underparts
Very short legs, red (unwebbed) feet Bright blue tail
Bright blue in wings
BIRD 5
We are back in the realms of swimming diving birds, again, now, with another ‘black-and-white’ bird which doesn’t have the right bill for a duck. Our ducks either have the classic flattened spatulate shape (think Mallard) or the narrow toothed-edged ‘sawbill’ (think Goosander). This bird’s pale grey bill (with a black top edge, or culmen) is of the pointed type typical of a diver (lacking the hooked tip of a cormorant). But which diver? The dark ‘hooded’ head effectively rules out Red-throated, which has much more white feathering around the face (or brown feathering on a juvenile), leaving Black-throated or Great Northern Diver. The flat head with bulges, the black half collar on the neck and the robust bill all point to this being a Great Northern Diver.
Key features
Shape, especially bill of a diver Thick, pointed pale grey bill Black half collar ‘Bulges’ on head
BIRD 6
Consider this one an early Christmas present. After all, it is a perfect view of this species in flight, showing all the key features. The bill is very short (and pink and black), but flattened, showing that this is a duck of some kind. Most of the plumage is a clean white, with a black patch at the base of the pink bill, a black oval on the throat, extensively black on the breast, wholly black upperwings and underwings (with not a hint of a wing-bar or pale panel), and a grey face patch. And the extremely long, narrow black tail as a continuation of the black back. This could only be a drake Long-tailed Duck in winter plumage.
Key features
White and black duck
Wholly black wings
Very long, thin, black tail
Pale rey face patch. Pink-and-black bill