Slides from the Bird Brain: Open Bird Quiz finals at the 2019 Bangalore Bird day conducted by Prashanth N S & L Shyamal See link on blog for details on the quiz: http://www.daktre.com/2020/01/bird-brains-open-quiz-2019/

1. Quizmasters
Prashanth N S (daktre.com)
&
L Shyamal (muscicapa.blogspot.com)

2. FINALS
• 6 teams
• 5 rounds
• Round-robin 4
• WorldBirds
• Indiabirds
• Going local
• Birds BnB
• Roadrunner
• Be-a-condor
• Bowerboard
• Ear-watching birds

3. RoundRobin 1
WorldBirds
10 points for the right answer. Questions pass once to all teams. 5 points for
right answer to passed question. Questions eventually pass to audience
(special gifts!)

4. The Hoatzin is often included among the most
unusual birds of the world. Why?
Worldbirds 1

5. Folivory

6. Which bird?
Worldbirds 2

7. Charles Sharp/Wikimedia Commons

8. This illustrates the spine and
musculature of a bird. Identify the bird.
Special gift for what adaptation is
being illustrated.
Worldbirds 3

9. “On the underside of the cervical vertebrae 5–7 is a keel, which allows for muscles
to attach to form a hinge-like mechanism that can project the neck, head and bill
forward like a throwing spear.”
Hence the name, “Darter”
Afsar Nayakkan/Wikimedia Commons

10. This illustration is from an experiment by
two Nobel-prize winners. Half marks for
identifying each of the scientists.
Special gift for an explanation.
Worldbirds 4

11. Konrad Lorenz & Nikolaas
Tinbergen
Hawk & Goose
experiments

12. Worldbirds 5
Half marks each or identifying the writer and the bird and
special gift for an explanation for why it made the writer sick.
In 1860 Darwin wrote in a letter:
“The sight of a feather in a Peacock’s tail, whenever I gaze at it,
makes me sick!'

14. Worldbirds 6
What is special about this painting?
Special gift for naming the artist

15. Living dodo in Jahangir’s personal
menagerie possibly via (Portugese-
ruled) Goa.
Siberian Crane painted by him was
given its binomial over a century
later (1625 painted & Pallas named
it in 1773)!
An unsigned painting, hanging today
in The Hermitage in St. Petersburg
is attributed to him.
Possibly the only known colour
illustration of the Dodo, made from a
living specimen.

16. RoundRobin 2
IndiaBirds
10 points for the right answer. Questions pass once to all teams. 5 points for
right answer to passed question. Questions eventually pass to audience
(special gifts!)

17. The first book that illustrated nearly all the
birds of the Indian region was produced as a
supplement to the Handbook of the Birds of
India and Pakistan. The mother of the artist
of this book was a survivor of the sinking of
the Titanic. Name the artist.
Indiabirds 1

19. What bird is being described here?
Indiabirds 2

20. JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons

21. Cosmetic colouration in birds refers to
the use of substances by birds to add
colour
Give an Indian bird example.
Indiabirds 3

22. Great Hornbill

23. Which bird from India is said to be the closest living relative of the dodo?
Indiabirds 4

24. Wikipedia citing Shapiro et. al 2002

25. Which Indian bird has chicks that hatch and grow up without
care either from parents or from surrogates?
Indiabirds 5

26. Shashank Dalvi/Macaulay Library

27. "The Kharchal" according to Babur “which may be
about the size of a tughdak is in reality the tughdak of
Hindustan. Its flesh is very savoury. The flesh and leg
of some fowls and of the breast of others is excellent;
the flesh of every part of the kharchal is delicious."
What is a Kharchal?
Indiabirds 6

28. Prajwalkm/Wikimedia Commons

29. Indiabirds 7
For the king had the ships of Tarshish at
sea with Hiram’s fleet, and once every
three years the ships of Tarshish would
arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and
___________.
1 KINGS 10:22

30. RoundRobin 3
Going local
10 points for the right answer. Questions pass once to all teams. 5 points for
right answer to passed question. Questions eventually pass to audience
(special gifts!)

31. Identify the artist of the cover
illustration.
Going local 1

33. This small insectivorous bird vanished from the IISc campus
before the 1990s, and then vanished from Lal Bagh and from
the UAS Hebbal campus before 2000 and is now at best
extremely rare in GKVK campus. What species are we talking
about?
Going local 2

34. Common Iora

35. Going local 3
In the early 1960s, this
bespectacled man was doing
fieldwork on migratory birds in
Karnataka under the supervision
of Salim Ali and his research was
funded by the World Health
Organisation.
Who was he and what was he
studying?

36. Nithyanand Rao in The Wire, Nov 2016

37. This 1881 book mentions a Major McInroy
"I think I am within the mark when I say that
near Mallur, a station on the Bangalore
Madras line of rail and 25 miles from
Bangalore, thirty birds were shot in one day
by two officers of the Forest department."
Which bird, today critically endangered, is
the Major talking about?
Going local 4

39. Supposedly a depiction of the food-chain as shown in the Chennakesava
temple, where a deer becomes prey to a big python, which in turn is lifted
by an elephant, only to become prey to a lion which in turn is devoured by
“Sharabha” (Shiva). Identify the (mythical) bird that is devouring Sharabha
Going local 5

40. The Ghandaberunda
On the insignia of the
Government of Karnataka

41. Going local 6
Which endemic bird were they looking for at this location?

42. eBird India
NLBW Nov-Dec 1990

43. RoundRobin 4
Bird BnB
10 points for the right answer. Questions pass once to all teams. 5 points for
right answer to passed question. Questions eventually pass to audience
(special gifts!)

44. B BnB 1
LesleytheBirdNerd/Youtube

45. Allopreening

46. B BnB 2
Hans De Koning & Lodewijk van Eekhout/Youtube

47. Whiffling in geese

48. B BnB 3
Planet TOOTOO/Youtube

50. B BnB 4
James Carden/Youtube

51. Paraptesis/Distraction display

52. B BnB 5
Ajit/ForestOwlet/Wikimedia Commons
Brahminy Kite at Lalbagh

53. Sunning/Basking
Thermoregulation
Stiffening feathers in
raptors
Ectoparasite action
Antibacterial effects
L Shyamal/Wikimedia Commons
Grey Heron in Delta-wing position facing the sun

54. B BnB 6
Forestandgarden/Youtube

55. Ornithophily

56. Roadrunner
Name the bird/bird-related fact/phenomenon in 30 seconds. 3 clues. 15 for
answering at first, 10 for second and 5 for last; correct answer to passed
question gets 5

57. Roadrunner 1a
Linnaeus in 10th edition of Systema Naturae
described this bird being distributed in Jamaica & Bengal

58. Roadrunner 1b
eBird

59. …an unfortunate girl of a merchant
family was tortured by her mother-in-
law. Troubled by various incidents she
smeared herself with turmeric paste
and covered herself with a sooty
earthen pot and killed herself. A
goddess resurrected her….
- Bengali folklore
Roadrunner 1c

60. JM Garg/Wikimedia Commons

61. Roadrunner 2a
But how stands the wind?
Into what corner peers my halcyon’s bill
Shakesphere in King Lear

62. Roadrunner 2b
"Halcyon" is a name for a bird in Greek legend generally associated with
the kingfisher. There was an ancient belief that the bird nested on the sea,
which it calmed in order to lay its eggs on a floating nest. Two weeks of
calm weather were therefore expected around the winter solstice. This
myth leads to the use of halcyon as a term for peace or calmness

63. Roadrunner 2c

64. KIngfishers

65. Roadrunner 3a
Bangalore’s connection with a major discovery
in medicine & birds

66. Roadrunner 3b
Extinction of birds in Hawaii

67. Roadrunner 3c
Awarded a Nobel Prize in
Medicine & Physiology for
work in birds. Who is he
and what did he study?

68. Avian malaria/Ronald Ross

69. Roadrunner 4a
Thick-forest-darkness
The Soliga people

70. The bird that never sat down…
Lepcha people
Roadrunner 4b

71. Roadrunner 4c
Known for its nest-predation & low-slow flight

72. Kalyan Varma/Wikimedia Commons

73. Roadrunner 5a

74. SaugataBagchi.
Roadrunner 5b

75. NicholasDale
Roadrunner 5c

76. Malabar Whistling Thrush

77. Described this species in “Ceylon”
Roadrunner 6a

78. Roadrunner 6b

79. RaghupathyKannanSketch1982
Roadrunner 6c

80. Brown-breasted Flycatcher

81. Be-a-condor
Mime (act-out) clues for your partner to guess the bird in 1 minute (10
seconds to prepare). Not allowed to make ANY SOUNDS. Not allowed to use
signs for alphabets. 10 for right answer and 5 for right answer to passed
mime.

82. Bowerboard
Use the whiteboard and marker to draw clues for your partner to
guess the bird. NOT allowed to use any LETTERS. Drawing the bird
allowed! 10 for right answer and 5 for right answer to passed
drawing.

83. Earwatching birds
Name that bird from call…..but from bird guide’s description of the
call!: We show how bird guides describe the call (10 points), and then
play its typical call (5 points)

84. Earwatching 1
Makes a rapidly repeated khateejakhateeja-
khateeja; also softer, more whistling kila-kila-
kila-kila-kila, and a high, whirring khirr-khirr.
Vivek Puliyeri/Xenocanto

85. Grey Francolin
Dibyendu Ash/Wikimedia Commons

86. Earwatching 2
A distinctive, repeated, loud, staccato kuk-ka-
kurruk-ka.
Frank Lambert/Xenocanto

87. Grey Junglefowl
Yathin S K/Wikimedia Commons

88. Earwatching 3
Normal call is a loud, harsh titu-titu similar
to call of Black Drongo, also long drawn
out screams, iheeya, iheeiya and a
constantly repeated ti-tui in display
Peter Boseman/Xenocanto

89. Shikra
Ravivaidya/Wikimedia Commons

90. Earwatching 4
A soft, mournful krookruk-krukroo… kroo-kroo-
kroo
Manoj Karingamadathil/Xenocanto

91. Spotted Dove
Charles Sharp/Wikimedia Commons

92. Earwatching 5
A short series of resonant, piping hoots, the
first note shortest, the rest of the phrase rising
slightly and then dropping off again.
Arun Prabhu/Xenocanto

93. Greater (Southern) Coucal
David Raju/Wikimedia COmmons

94. Earwatching 6
Call is a loud, rattling laugh. Song is a drawn-
out musical whistle kililili.
Peter Boseman/Xenocanto

95. JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons

96. Calls include a loud cackling k-k-k-ka-e, rapid
piping pi-pi-pi-pi-pipipieu-pipipieu-pipipieu and
kite-like chee-oowww.
Peter Boseman/Xenocanto

97. Indian Grey Hornbill
JM Garg/Wikimedia Commons

98. Thank you!