Quiz

Mark 7 Comments

Here’s a quiz – and it’s just for fun.  The answers will be posted at 7pm this evening.

If you have the February issue of British Birds (with a dipper on the cover) you can look up most of the answers in the excellent article on population estimates of birds in the UK.

1. Which bird species has the largest UK breeding population?

2. How many UK breeding bird species have populations of over 1 million pairs?

3. Which is the commonest UK breeding species that Mark Avery has never seen anywhere in the world (UK population of 48,000 pairs)?

4. Which is the commoner in each of these pairs of species: little owl and barn owl; chiffchaff and willow warbler; jackdaw and carrion crow; yellowhammer and reed bunting; red kite and merlin?

5. All these species have similar-sized breeding populations in the UK; woodlark, goosander, Dartford warbler and willow tit.  Are they  in the 2000s, 3000s, 4000s, 5000s or 6000s?

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7 Replies to “Quiz”

  1. I don’t subscribe to British Birds (just British Wildlife instead), so I’ve had to make educated guesses here…. although I did look up the bird which you’ve never seen (I may be wrong however!)

    1- Wren?
    2- 23?
    3- Leach’s Petrel?
    4- Little owl, willow warbler, carrion crow, yellowhammer, red kite I’d guess (by now)?
    5- 30000s

  2. Well without cheating or reading or even knowing much about anything really I’m going to go for the following answers
    1)Chaffinch or Collared Dove
    2)No idea, probably getting less and less though
    3)What? Oh I don’t know Great Skua!!!!
    4)Little Owl, Jackdaw,Reed Bunting (that has to be a close call in numbers both seem to be getting scarce on my patch),Chiff-Chav, Red Kite seems obvious but why Merlin as an option so I’ll go Merlin….surely can’t be more Merlins then Red Kites?
    5)3000

  3. I don’t get British Birds, but here goes:

    1) Wren

    2) 23

    3) Whinchat

    4) Little Owl, Willow Warbler, Jackdaw, Yellowhammer, Red Kite

    5) 3000s

  4. I don’t have access to the article but I am going to make an informed guess that 1. is Wren and 3. is Leach’s petrel (which would also be the commonest UK species that I have never seen!)

  5. I do not have British Birds but I would guess that number 3 relates to a bird found in the Uk with its main Uk breeding population on St Kilda islands

  6. Not heard of British Birds mag but my answers are
    1, Tits
    2. None
    3. Did read it somewhere but cant remember!
    4. Jackdaw+Crow
    5. 2000

  7. I guess I’m not allowed to enter, having spent far too long looking at these numbers over the last year.

    But, what do you mean – “with a dipper on the cover”? Surely you mean, “with THE dipper on the cover”?! Still present today, 100m from The Nunnery…

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