Birds word search: garden birds to birds of prey

Spot 78 species in this birds word search, from the ROBIN and WREN at the feeder to the OSPREY, ALBATROSS and FLAMINGO, twelve per 12×12 grid. Birdwatchers will find plenty of old friends. No app, no sign-up and no interstitial before the grid; it works offline after your first visit and every letter can be selected from the keyboard.

How to play the birds word search

1. Twelve birds are hidden in straight lines, across, down or on a diagonal, and some read backwards.
2. Drag from the first letter to the last, or tap both in turn.
3. A correct find is banded in colour and struck off; wrong picks are ignored.
4. Hint marks the first letter of a word you have not found.
5. Switch to 20×20 in Settings to look for 28 birds at once.

Birds word search strategy

Bird names are a mixed flock: very short ones (JAY, OWL, EMU), four long compounds ending in BIRD, and a lot of rare letters. Use all three, in roughly that order of payoff: rare letters first, compounds next, the tiny names last.

Rare letters

QUAIL has the only Q and BUZZARD the only Zs, a double at that. J opens JAY and JACKDAW. K is common in bird names and rare in fill: HAWK, KITE, KIWI, KESTREL, STORK, LARK, DUCK, PEACOCK, KINGFISHER, WOODPECKER and CHICKADEE all have one. V is in RAVEN, DOVE, VULTURE and LOVEBIRD.

The BIRD compounds

BLACKBIRD, HUMMINGBIRD, BLUEBIRD and LOVEBIRD all end in BIRD. BIRD itself is not on the list, so a B-I-R-D run nearly always belongs to one of them; read back from the B to see which. The letters just before BIRD tell them apart: K for BLACKBIRD, G for HUMMINGBIRD, and UE or VE for BLUEBIRD and LOVEBIRD.

Doubles and length

CUCKOO has two doubles, and PUFFIN, GANNET, SPARROW, SWALLOW, HARRIER and ROOSTER one each. The eleven-letter HUMMINGBIRD and NIGHTINGALE need a 12×12 or larger and are easy to spot there; JAY, OWL and EMU are the ones to sweep for last.

Words in the birds word search

The birds list has 78 names, all in everyday English. They run from JAY, OWL and EMU to HUMMINGBIRD and NIGHTINGALE at eleven letters, with KINGFISHER and WOODPECKER at ten. Six- and seven-letter names such as PUFFIN, PARROT, FALCON, PELICAN and SPARROW are the most common.

The garden comes first: ROBIN, SPARROW, FINCH, WREN, THRUSH, BLACKBIRD, STARLING. The crow family follows (CROW, RAVEN, JAY, MAGPIE, JACKDAW), then the birds of prey (OWL, HAWK, EAGLE, FALCON, KESTREL, OSPREY, VULTURE, CONDOR, KITE, BUZZARD, HARRIER), the waders and seabirds (HERON, EGRET, STORK, CRANE, IBIS, FLAMINGO, PUFFIN, GANNET, CORMORANT, ALBATROSS) and the waterfowl (DUCK, GOOSE, SWAN, MALLARD, TEAL, MOORHEN). Warmer places add PARROT, MACAW, TOUCAN and HORNBILL, the flightless birds are EMU, OSTRICH, KIWI and PENGUIN, and the farmyard has CHICKEN, ROOSTER and TURKEY.

The list mixes British and American favourites: CHICKADEE, CARDINAL, BLUEBIRD and ORIOLE sit beside MOORHEN and JACKDAW. Several names have other meanings, KITE, SWIFT, CRANE, MARTIN and TEAL among them.

Stats, hints and printables

The timer pauses when the tab is hidden, and Birds stats (played, won, win rate, best and average time) stay in this browser. The first two hints are free; once ads are enabled, more cost a short ad or a 30-second wait. Every grid has a code such as A7K3Q to replay or share, and the printable page makes birds sheets.

Plays anywhere, no app, no account

The birds grid fits a phone in a hide or on the sofa, and every letter is a labelled button that works with the keyboard and screen readers. Tidy Puzzles runs entirely in your browser: there is no app to install, no account to create and no interstitial before you can play. After the first visit the game also works offline, because each puzzle is generated on your device from a seed. Every board can be played with the keyboard alone, on a phone or a desktop, and your stats and unfinished puzzles stay in this browser rather than on a server.