About BirdBrainQuiz

Hi, I'm Jim Gray. I live in Petaluma, in Sonoma County, California. I've been birding for over ten years and it has been quite an obsession. In my working life I've been an electronic design engineer, a software engineer and a technology program manager. BirdBrainQuiz is one of my personal projects.

Why I made it

When I started birding I couldn't tell an American Crow from a Common Raven, or a Turkey Vulture from a Red-tailed Hawk. To learn the local birds I made a set of online flash cards. They helped, but I was only learning one version of each bird. Common Loons, for example, are only in breeding plumage for part of the year, and many are females or juveniles, with lots of variation between individuals. What I needed was to see many different photos of each species.

What it does

• Real photos, lots of them. Each question shows a different photo of the bird, so you learn plumages, angles and lighting, not just one picture.
• Your region's birds. Pick a country, state or province and quiz on the birds seen there, from the most common to the full list, or by family.
• Study remembers which birds you know and keeps bringing back the ones you miss until they stick. Practice is one quick run through a list.
• Multiple choice puts similar birds side by side; Type the name makes you recall it yourself.
• Your own lists. Make a list of the birds you want to work on and share it with friends or a class.

Photos come from photographers who share their work on Flickr (mainly the Field Guide: Birds of the World group, where identifications are reviewed), iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons. Each photo is credited on the quiz page. If you spot a wrong or poor photo, use report error under it.

How to get the most from it

• Start small. If you're new to identifying birds, begin with a short list such as the Top 25 and work up.
• Use the info links. Every answer has an info link that opens a page about that bird, with more photos, its songs and calls, and where it's found. Use it to look closer at a bird you're unsure of, or to check the answer after you've seen it.
• Ask how to tell them apart. When you get one wrong, tap How do I tell these apart? for a short AI explanation of the field marks that separate your guess from the right bird.
• Get ready for a trip. Planning to go birding somewhere new? Choose that country, state or province and learn its birds before you go, so you know what to look for when you get there.
• Keep a field guide handy. I like to quiz with a field guide open so I can compare. Any good field guide, website or regional foldout will speed up your learning.

I'd love to hear from you

Comments, ideas for new features, regions you'd like added, and bug reports are all welcome. Get in touch.

BirdBrainQuiz is free. If you find it useful, you can help with the running costs.