River Birds Quiz

June 28, 2018

Wood ducks nest up to 290 feet above the ground. Flightless chicks have to jump from the nest to the ground before making their first pilgrimage to the water.

Here is the “waterside birds” quiz. It covers the birds you’re most likely to spot during a paddle on the Columbia or the Wenatchee or on a riverside hike in Confluence State Park. In this quiz you can learn to identify ducks, raptors, swallows, and shorebirds, and find out which type of dinosaur birds are most closely related to.

Photo by Ken Longley: Red-winged blackbirds sometimes work together to mob crows that are plundering the nest. Males may mate with up to 15 females in one season.

Here’s a sampling of photos, but for the full meal deal check out the entire slideshow.

Cliff swallows build nests out of mud. You can find their colonies of nests under the bridges when you paddle or float down the Wenatchee River.

Buffleheads are one of the few monogamous duck species. They’re also the smallest ducks in N. America.

Note: Many thanks to Rod Gilbert for providing most of the photos for this slideshow. There are also a number from the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, which has an online gallery available for non-profit or educational use. Ken Longley also took several of the beautiful photos that were used in this show.

This post was originally published on 5/27/13.

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