Before we start today’s quiz, were you able to identify the bird calls from yesterday? They were, in order: Eurasian curlew, Eurasian skylark, and song thrush. Some of my favourites – this blog is clearly all about self-indulgence. Onwards!

Dear Readers, for this week’s quiz I wanted to create something that could be enjoyed by all my readers, not just my UK ones. But what to do? In the end, I have settled for doing two separate quizzes. In the first one, the challenge is to identify British birds from just a ‘bit’ of them – I’ve made it multiple choice, but be careful! It might not be as easy as you’d think.

For the second part, I am working on the theory that we all have some idea of what a ‘typical’ bird from a family looks like – we could all probably recognise a pigeon, for example, whatever the species was. Or could we? Let’s have a go, and bonus points to people who cannot only identify the bird family, but also the species.

Anyhoo, part one! Identify the bird from the ‘bit’. Apologies for the grainy photos, but I think they give a certain Impressionistic ambience (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!) Have fun!

Answers:

a) Robin

b) Grey heron

c) Goldfinch

d) Jackdaw

e) Long-tailed tit

f) Woodpigeon

g) Shelduck

h) Starling.

And now, let’s see how good we are at putting non-UK birds into their correct families! All of these birds have UK relations. In other words, what makes a duck a duck (though there are no ducks today!) Extra points for the species.

Your choices are:

a) Finch (Carduelidae)

b) Pigeon (Columbidae)

c) Wagtail (Motacillidae)

d) Parrot (Psitticidae)

e) Sparrow (Passeridae)

f) Woodpecker (Picidae)

g) Thrush (Turdidae)

h) Swift (Apodidae)

Answers in the comments please, and as usual, if you don’t want to be influenced by speedier responders, write your answers down on a bit of paper first (old-school I know). Good luck! Answers on Tuesday, but if you want to be marked, please get your answers in before 8 p.m. on Monday (UK time). Thank you.