From garden visitors to high-flyers
Birds come in every shape and size, and this word search rounds up a proper aviary. You'll be spotting the backyard regulars — ROBIN, SPARROW and FINCH — the sharp-eyed hunters like the EAGLE and FALCON, and a few showstoppers, from the flashy PEACOCK to the pink FLAMINGO.
Each puzzle pulls a fresh selection from the flock, so the aviary changes every time you play — gentle on Easy, and a Hard-mode spot once the diagonals and backwards words appear (a PENGUIN likes to waddle in backwards).
Not just the songbirds
The bigger characters get their moment too. Keep an eye out for the hammering WOODPECKER, the wise OWL, the noisy MAGPIE and CROW, the diving KINGFISHER, the fish-scooping PELICAN, the HERON by the water and the SEAGULL eyeing up your chips. We've even hidden the flightless OSTRICH, the talkative PARROT and CANARY, and the circling VULTURE for sharp-eyed spotters.
What makes a bird a bird
Birds are the only animals on Earth with feathers, and almost everything about them is built for flight. Their bones are hollow to save weight, and a flying bird like the FALCON has a body so streamlined it can dive at over 200 miles per hour — making the peregrine the fastest animal alive. Feathers do double duty too: they keep a bird warm and waterproof, and let a PEACOCK or a FLAMINGO show off with colour (a flamingo is actually pink because of the shrimp it eats).
Not every bird flies, though. The OSTRICH is far too big to leave the ground, so it runs instead — fast enough to outpace a racehorse — while the PENGUIN turned its wings into flippers for 'flying' underwater. Beaks tell a story as well: the WOODPECKER hammers wood to find grubs, the EAGLE tears with a hooked beak, and the KINGFISHER spears fish. Spotting these birds in the grid is a brilliant way into a nature topic on habitats, migration and how animals are suited to where they live.
Great for a nature topic
Easy mode keeps the grid small with no diagonals or reverse words, ideal for a lesson on birds and habitats. Play online, print a PDF pack, or use Make Your Own to type in the birds from a nature walk and take a fresh puzzle outside.