26 thoughts on “Quiz: Which Birds Occur Worldwide?

  1. Peregrine Falcon has to be on the list! Maybe the Arctic Tern? Barn owl Osprey and Starling I can believe as well.

    1. Glenda, you’re correct in a very general sense but not specific enough (i.e. the list is not at the species level). For instance, a worldwide duck species is the Mallard duck while the Ruddy duck is only on 2 continents. Can you name a gull species that occurs worldwide?

  2. European Starling
    House sparrow
    Osprey
    Peregrine Falcon
    Leach’s Petrel
    Common Tern
    Barn Owl
    Great Egret
    Great Cormorant

    I am sure there are more.

  3. Peregrine falcon
    Short-eared owl
    Barn swallow
    Mallard Duck
    Cattle egret

    Arctic tern (all continents including Antartica)

  4. THE ANSWER SO FAR (as of 12/14/2016) …
    Mallard duck
    Common Tern
    Wilson’s storm-petrel (all 7 continents, including Antarctica!)
    Cattle egret
    Great Egret (**)
    Osprey
    Peregrine Falcon
    Barn owl
    Rock Pigeon
    Barn swallow
    European starling
    House sparrow
    * added by Tony Bledsoe ***
    Glossy Ibis
    Sooty Shearwater
    Whimbrel
    Ruddy Turnstone
    Red Knot
    Sanderling
    Red-necked Phalarope
    Parasitic Jaeger
    Pomarine Jaeger
    Long-tailed Jaeger

    Species that do NOT occur on every continent except Antarctica:

    Canada Geese: Native to North America. Introduced in Europe, New Zealand, Argentine, Chile and Falkland Islands.
    Arctic Tern: This bird travels the world & spends time in Antarctica but doesn’t visit Australia.
    Leach’s Petrel: This bird also travels the world and Antarctica but doesn’t go to Australia. However Wilson’s storm-petrel visits all 7 continents, perhaps the only bird that does.
    Great Cormorant: Surprisingly, this bird doesn’t go to South America
    Short-eared owl: Not in Australia
    (**) Thanks to Garret Lau for telling me that great egrets occur in Australia

    Crow: There are about 45 species of crows+ravens but none of them occur on all 6 of the 7 continents. In Europe “crow” means carrion crow or hooded crow (refers to 2 species). In North America “crow” means American crow, fish crow, or northwestern crow (refers to 3 species). So, no single crow species occurs worldwide.

    1. Trisha, Thanks for the update. I saw Canada geese when I went to London in 2017 but I forgot to correct the list. Correction made now.

    2. Nobarn swallows in Australia, except for occasional vagrants. Only circus’s in sough America are jays.

    3. Thanks for compiling this list. I was curious about it after showing my friends my photos from my birding trip to Australia. I have one correction to your list. Great Egrets are widespread in Australia.

    4. Hi. There used to be crows in puerto rico. Of course a native one. But was hunted extinct. Wonder if this happened too in south america

  5. A few more:

    Glossy Ibis
    Sooty Shearwater
    Whimbrel
    Ruddy Turnstone

    … and there are a few more yet, but not very many. It’s surprising, in a way, that only a handful of the roughly 10,000 species of birds on Earth today occur worldwide.

    — and more 12/14/16 —
    Red Knot
    Sanderling
    Red-necked Phalarope
    Parasitic Jaeger
    Pomarine Jaeger
    Long-tailed Jaeger

  6. If you go to http://www.iucnredlist.org/search and type in the name of a bird species, then click on the little map icon you can see a distribution map of any bird species.

    Plugging in the species mentioned so far, it looks like osprey and peregrine falcon are the winners. I have not plugged them all in. (I am not counting the feral rock pigeon which infests many cities as they are descendants of escaped domestic pigeons.)

  7. Kate, you mention that Wilson’s storm-petrel might be the only bird that visits all 7 continents. According to ebird, Pomarine jaeger also occurs in all 7 continents 🙂

    Mathias

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