Since my late 20s I have always enjoyed tackling cryptic crosswords, and then one day I wondered why there seemed to be none about birds. So, I decided to try my hand at constructing some. I have since discovered other websites with bird-themed crosswords although not cryptic ones (and not always possessing the symmetrical pattern which is the hallmark of a “good” crossword).
My bird-themed crosswords are published as the "Cross-bird" in the quarterly magazine Australian BirdLife, under the pseudonym of Atrichornis. Can you work out why I chose that name?
I also occasionally have produced cryptic crosswords that are not about birds; for example, to entertain my family at Christmas time.
The links below will take you to individual crosswords. Be warned – the solutions are on the second page!
Atrichornis crosswords (The Cross-bird)
Atrichornis 047 (I made a numbering error and hence there is no #046)
A non-cryptic bird crossword
I prepared a non-cryptic crossword for the 2026 Australasian Shorebird Conference. Most of the answers are to do with shorebirds, but of course not all of them.
The Penta Puzzles
I developed these "simple" non-cryptic 5 x 5 puzzles during the 2020 Coronavirus lockdown, as a brief distraction for birdwatchers who for about nine weeks were unable to visit their favourite birding spots. I sent out a new puzzle to the Hunter Region birding community every day over the lockdown period. The puzzles also were uploaded to the BirdLife Australia website (as the "Daily Cross-bird"). For a compilation of the full set of 63 puzzles (and also a bonus 7 x 7 puzzle), click here.
The Bittern - my large cryptic bird crosswords
I've been experimenting with a 23 x 23 format for crosswords. That allows me to use longer bird names (the 15 character limit is a frustration at times). Thus far I've created three of these larger puzzles (which I've dubbed as The Bittern - i.e. large and cryptic).
More cryptic bird crosswords
These are some of my early attempts at bird-themed crosswords. The “birdiness” of them is variable (some don’t have much to do with birds at all) and some of them use anagrams (sometimes rather convoluted ones!) to a greater extent than nowadays I would permit. But you might enjoy trying them nevertheless.
Fledgling 001 (this evolved to become Atrichornis 015; several of the answers are the same but most of the clues are different).
Fledgling 004 (this evolved to become Atrichornis 005; several of the answers are the same but many of the clues are different).
Non-bird cryptic crosswords
Christmas 2013 ("Unwrapping the Presence")
Christmas 2014 ("Presents of Mind")
Christmas 2015 ("Yule Work it Out")