Feburary 2025 - Birds

Tap on any hint box to view it.

Location: Eagle Eyes

  1. Some of those names aren't very common.
  2. Gatsby is a GREAT last name. Ever heard of anyone with that name? What was their first name?
  3. Sarah's list sounds like first names, and James' list sounds like more common last names.
  4. Sarah's list is of well-known people with bird last names, and James' list is of well-known people with bird first names.
  5. Jack - Pirate
    Sheryl - Musician
    Tony - Pro Skater
    Taylor - Musician
    Florence - Nurse & Statistician
    Frasier - Psychiatrist
    Larry - Basketball Player & Senator
    Aubrey - Rapper
    Luther - Monk & Reformer
    Gatsby - Socialite
    Williams - Comedian
    Symone - Actress
    Graham - Rapper
  6. Jack SPARROW
    Sheryl CROW
    Tony HAWK
    Taylor SWIFT
    Florence NIGHTINGALE
    Frasier CRANE
    Larry BIRD
  7. MARTIN Luther
    JAY Gatsby
    ROBIN Williams
    RAVEN-Symone Maday
  8. The last item on both lists is one person best known mononymously by their middle name: Aubrey DRAKE Graham.
  9. Index the full names using the numbers next to them and extract those letters.
  10. PECKING ORDER

Countdown

  1. What do all of the items on the feathers have in common? Anything come to mind?
  2. How do the items on the quill relate to the items on their respective feathers?
  3. Each item is closely related to a number, e.g. Tale of Two Cities.
  4. Identify all of the items on each "vane" that match the quill.
  5. The feathers each have six items on them, three rows of two. Does that remind you of any familiar codes you may have seen (or not seen) before?
  6. The Braille-encoded letters on the feathers are:
    Top row, L to R: DOREC
    Bottom row, L to R: KUBRB
  7. What is the name of this puzzle?
  8. ROBBER DUCK

Fowl Language

  1. Is there anything that stands out in the words?
  2. What happens if you circle the letters that stand out. Do they say anything?
  3. If you circle the letters in bold font and read top to bottom, it says COUNT AEIOU TERNARY
  4. What do you find if you count the vowels in each syllable of each call?
  5. Each call has three parts, with either 0, 1, or 2 vowels in each syllable. Try decoding that from ternary.
  6. The flavor text mentions “order of the pitch and volume”. Do pitch and volume have any alternative, non-auditory meanings?
  7. Try drawing a straight line under each call, and using that to order the calls by decreasing angle and size. (The largest calls also have the most upward angle.)
  8. THREE SHRIKES

Murmuring

  1. Look at the example in the top right to see how this puzzle works.
  2. You'll need to find words that match the clues that have the given lengths.
  3. The direction of each word is given, but not all of the starting points.
  4. Since the starting point of subsequent words is somewhere in the previous word, you can use that to help identify the first letter of the next word, or use the first letter of a word to identify a letter from the previous word.
  5. Since you know the length of each word, that can help identify starting positions (words fit in the boxes).
  6. 1: RODEO, OATH, HEAT, AGE
    2: DESKS, STUDY, TEA, ASH
    3: RAT, TONE, EARTH, TYPO
    4: YACHT, CAB, BAA, ATE
  7. The bolded boxes (the even rows) indicate the solution.
  8. SPEAK TO THE TANAGER

Migration

  1. You don't need to figure out the exact path right away--just the cells that it went through.
  2. Some of the columns have zero, meaning you know the bird didn't go through those cells.
  3. Try looking for rows/columns that are "full" (you know all the traveled cells).
  4. Alternatively, look for rows/columns that "need" all of the non-excluded cells to get to its total.
    1. The two outer columns can be excluded.
    2. The fifth row from the bottom requires 13 cells--and there are only 13 cells remaining in that row, so those are all traveled.
    3. The third column from the left only has one cell traveled, which we just identified, so all of the other cells are excluded.
  6. For the North-to-South trip, note that one of the columns has zero cells traveled, and it's in the middle of the map.
  7. The map is flat, but what is it a map of?
  8. North 5, East 12, South 2, West 8, North 6, East 2, South 1, West 4, North 2
  9. South 4, West 2, North 2, East 5, South 7, West 13 (wrapping around), North 3, East 2, South 4
  10. If you compare the paths, what do they have in common?
  11. Find the cells in both paths and read from top to bottom, left to right.
  12. AS THE WORLD TERNS

Meta: Ornithological Deduction

  1. Fill in the main set solutions in the grid, starting at the arrows.
  2. Each main set solution is a different length, so it should be unambiguous which solution goes in which spaces.
  3. The field notes on page two of the puzzle provide some additional clues/contraints for this puzzle.
  4. There are 9 species listed on the field notes, and 5 categories, so there will be some features which only appear on a single bird.
  5. There's only one softball-sized bird, the American Kestrel. It's orange, eats mice, and has a hooked beak.
  6. Since the Cormorant also has a hooked bill, it can be excluded.
  7. The Loon is the only other basketball-sized bird in the group. It's black, has a pointed beak, and eats fish.
  8. The Blue Heron eats fish and mice, but we've already identified birds with that food, so it can be excluded.
  9. The Sandhill Crane is the only other beach-ball-sized bird. It is gray, and has a long beak. You can't determine what it was eating yet.
  10. The Tree Swallow is the only other blue bird. It is ping-pong-ball-sized, eats insects, and has a short beak.
  11. Since the Lesser Goldfinch also is ping-pong-ball-sized, it can be excluded.
  12. The Evening Grosbeak is the only other yellow bird. It is the size of a tennis ball and has a conical beak.
  13. Using clue #4, we know the bird with a long beak (the crane) is eating seeds.
  14. The 5 birds are: Tree Swallow (blue, ping-pong, short, bugs)
    Common Loon (black, basketball, pointed, fish)
    Sandhill Crane (gray, beach-ball, long, seeds)
    Americal Kestrel (orange, softball, hooked, mouse)
    Evening Grosbeak (yellow, tennis, conical, berries)
  15. Mark all the bird-trait pairs and read the letters indicated by the selected birds.
  16. From top to bottom, left to right, read: ALL BIRD NAME LENGTHS AS ROW COL PAIRS
  17. Extract the letters from the grid using the lengths of the bird names, e.g. "Heron, Blue" => 5, 4 => E
  18. A RARE BIRD

Bonus: Sankofa

  1. This whole set has been about birds. I bet the answers in this puzzle are, too.
  2. Links between the boxes indicate that the letters are the same in the linked boxes.
  3. Answers to clues:
    INCUBATES
    SWIFT
    CREST
    DRUMSTICK
    WINGS
    DOVETAIL
    ROOK
    CRANE
    NESTED
    SWALLOW
    CLUTCH
    CANARY
    BIRDIE
    BRANCH
    FLIGHT
  4. What are the circled letters?
  5. What happens if you "look back" and read them backwards?
  6. THEY HAD NO EGRETS