Bird Jigsaw Puzzle

Here's the Cornell Lab of Ornithology jigsaw puzzle I recently completed.


Although there are 120 bird species in the picture, there are a few cases where, due to sexual dimorphism, they show a picture of both a male and a female, so there are over 120 birds pictured. It's a 1000 piece puzzle. The birds are all indigenous to eastern/central North America, though it's not a complete set. 

Some of you have heard this before, so be prepared for a recap. Here are some observations:

  • I don't really have the proper lighting for doing jigsaw puzzles in my apartment. I have those somewhat out-of-date "pig-tail fluorescent" light bulbs, which doesn't exactly emulate natural light all that well. And even during broad daylight my living room doesn't get the sunlight that would be helpful, especially in winter.
  • A couple times I turned a flashlight on some pieces, detected some red or yellow feathering, and quickly found a spot for them. (The flashlight trick waned in helpfulness as the remaining pieces became increasingly less colorful.)
  • There were a disturbing number of blackish birds scattered in various locations; these proved especially difficult for me to make progress on. I'd have no trouble distinguishing a Double-crested Cormorant versus an American Crow versus a Common Grackle if I met 1, but an inaccurately-sized section of feathers is another matter.
  • And yes, these birds aren't necessarily scaled properly. I don't think that hurt my progress; I point this out so nobody tells me that a Common Raven isn't bigger than a Great Egret. (In real life you couldn't get these birds together like this either, since quite a few of them would like to eat quite a few of the others.)
  • My usual strategy is to do the edges and more or less working my way inward. In this case though I did the edges but then worked on the most colorful birds next, which got me off to a good start. Once I got away from the colorful birds though things slowed down.
  • I had some success sorting head pieces, tail pieces, and leg pieces. Progress was somewhat slow, but was made.

Here's an in-progress picture with the edges and the more colorful birds in place. (Though there's a fair amount of structure, it's not halfway done.)






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