by Michael » Sun Apr 04, 2010 6:29 pm
Answers and Results:
Answers
1. Cockatiel
2. Little Corella
3. Blue Headed Parrot (pionous)
4. Green-winged Macaw
5. Yellow-naped Amazon
6. Peach-faced Lovebird
7. Brown-headed Parrot
8. Budgerigar
9. Timneh African Grey
10. Alexandrine Parakeet (female)
Scores
issy 4.25
oknuma 7.25
Suzzique 7.25
MandyG 8.75
Pola 8
entrancedbymyGCC 5
FWC 9.75
pchela 8.75
Natacha 9.25
Chicklet 9.5
If I were grading merely on the basis of just connecting the picture to knowing which bird it is, most of you would have gotten a 10 so I scored it a little tougher to matching the bird name more exactly. 1 point is getting the parrot name exactly and I forgave small spelling mistakes as long as it was the complete name as from my answers list. I also forgave people who called it a Blue Headed Pionous rather than the official Blue Headed Parrot name because calling it a Pionous is higher specificity. Basically if you just guessed the "category" of the bird (macaw, parakeet, etc) you got .25 for the answer. If you got part of the answer but really not complete (like saying Green Macaw or Yellow Amazon) you got .5 for it. If you got it pretty close but were slightly off (ex Green-naped Amazon or Yellow Headed Amazon) you got .75 for that. And yes a Yellow Headed Amazon is a completely different species than Yellow-Naped.
The thing that got many of you was #2. Many said Bare Eyed Cockatoo. It is a commonly used name for the bird but from several sources that I checked, Little Corella prevailed as the proper name. Since some people did say Little Corella, I decided to give .75 for Bare Eyed Cockatoo and only full point for Little Corella to reward getting a closer match. It seems that some people had trouble pinpointing the Peach-faced Lovebird and the Yellow-naped Amazon. That's alright though as the species subtlety may take more time (or ownership of one) to learn. However, it seems that there was little doubt whether it was an Amazon, Lovebird, Macaw, etc so that's good. For African Grey, I was really looking for people to mention that it's a Timneh for the full score. While CAG and TAG are the same species, their differences contrast enough for an easy determination of the subspecies. The Alexandrine Parakeet got some confusion as well. Believe me, some of these were tough and knowledge of the subtleties determined the scores. I graded very stringently for there to be a spread in the scores at all or most would have probably had an 8, 9, or 10. When I developed the game, I tried to have a balance of easy parrots that anyone could get (no one got Cockatiel wrong) but also throw in some challenging ones. The challenge was either the subtlety of the specific species in a group or a parrot we've talked or seen little about. I thought more people would get Brown Headed Parrot wrong but I was surprised that many got it. I wanted to see if people would get tricked and put Senegal Parrot instead and no one did even though they look similar.
Finally I'd like to quickly mention the features on each parrot that came to mind to me when trying to pinpoint them down:
1) The crest and orange spot on cheek are unique to Cockatiel
2) The white plumage, patch around eye, and bits of red
3) Blue head and short tail (long tail might have been a Blue Crowned Parakeet)
4) Red plumage and green on wing
5) Green plumage, short tail, yellow on only part of back of head
6) Short tail, small beak, peach coloring around head
7) Brown head, tan beak
8) Green/yellow, long tail
9) Maroon tail, tan beak
10) Red beak, no ring, red shoulders
Thanks to everyone who participated. Hope everyone learned some new parrots or refreshed their memory. If anyone else would like to create one of these, feel free. Otherwise I may make another one within a few weeks.