gizmobench

Random Bird Generator

This page opens the animal generator on Birds, so the pool is the 100 bird names written for this tool and nothing else can be dealt: barn owl, harpy eagle, emperor penguin, rainbow lorikeet, shoebill and ninety-five more. Press Draw, or the space bar, and a fresh set comes out, six the first time or however many you last asked for here, up to 200 in one press. Repeats start off, which makes a draw a shuffle: every bird in the set is different, and asking for more than the pool holds is refused in words that name both numbers rather than quietly dealing fewer. Every pick comes from the browser's cryptographic random generator, mapped onto the pool by rejection so no name on the list is favoured over another. You can type your own birds into the box under the stage, up to 200 of them, and they are drawn alongside the built-in names and labelled Yours. The list holds names and nothing else: no photos, no songs, no range maps, nothing is uploaded and no account is asked for.

Press Draw for a set of animals.

Group
Birds
Repeats

Press space or Draw for a fresh set. With repeats off each animal comes out once, so the birds pool deals at most 100 in one press.

  • Birds onlyfiltered pool
    100 bird names, penguins filed among them
  • Repeats off, more asked than the pool holdsit says so rather than dealing fewer
    100 in the birds pool right now
  • Your own animalskept in this tab, drawn alongside the list
    none added yet

One per line, or separated by commas: up to 200 of them, 40 characters each. They join the pool whichever group is chosen and are labelled Yours in the list, so this week’s six are not lost when you switch to birds.

The list is written for this tool and holds names only: no images, no descriptions and nothing fetched, so the tool says what an animal is called and makes no other claim about it. The four labels are a filter for a game rather than a taxonomy, which is why a penguin sits under bird and a whale under marine. Animals you add stay in this browser.

Common questions

How many birds are in the list?
100, written for this tool from ordinary common names: barn owl, snowy owl, peregrine falcon, bald eagle, puffin, flamingo, mallard, kingfisher, scarlet macaw, kea, blue tit, common raven, secretary bird, Andean condor and shoebill among them. An entry holds the name and the label it is filed under and nothing else, so the tool can tell you a bird is called a shoebill and makes no claim about where it lives or how it is doing. The hint under the stage says how many that pool can deal in one press: 100 with repeats off, plus any birds you added yourself.
Can the same bird come up twice in one draw?
Not with Repeats off, which is the setting the tool starts on. The draw is then a shuffle of the bird pool: every bird dealt is different, and asking for more than the pool holds is refused in a message that names both numbers, for example 120 asked from the 100 birds, with the option to lower the count, turn repeats on, or add birds of your own. Turn Repeats on and each pick is an independent draw over the whole pool, so the same bird can appear twice in one set. Either way 200 names is the most one press deals.
Can I add my own birds to the pool?
Yes. The box under the stage takes them one per line or separated by commas, up to 200 additions of 40 characters each, and they are drawn alongside the built-in birds and labelled Yours in the list so it is always clear which names you added. A name the list already holds, such as Kestrel, is folded into the entry that is there rather than dealt twice. Your additions stay in this browser, are never sent anywhere, stay in the pool when you switch to another group, and Start over at the top of the page forgets them.
Are penguins, ostriches and other flightless birds in it?
Yes. Emperor, king, little and Adelie penguins are in the bird pool, and so are the ostrich, emu, cassowary, greater rhea, kiwi and kakapo, because that is where a player looks for them. The four group labels in this tool are a filter for picking a name out of a hat rather than a taxonomy, which is also why a whale and a sea turtle sit under marine rather than in with the birds.
Is the draw actually random?
Yes. Every pick comes from crypto.getRandomValues, the browser's cryptographic generator, and is mapped onto the pool by rejection sampling rather than by a remainder: a raw draw that lands above the last whole multiple of the pool size is thrown away and drawn again, because a remainder would hand the first few birds on the list one extra chance each. With repeats off the same source drives a Fisher-Yates shuffle, so every set of that size is equally likely. Nothing is seeded from the clock or from anything the page drew before.
Can I draw other animals from this page?
Yes. The chips above the stage switch the pool at any time: All draws across the whole list of 299, Land holds 86, Marine 57 and Invertebrates 56. This page is the same tool with Birds already chosen when it opens, whichever chip this browser was last left on, so a round of birds needs no setting up. Your count, your repeats switch and your own animals are remembered here as usual.
How do I copy the birds I drew?
Copy list, under the stage, puts the drawn names on the clipboard one to a line in the order they came out, and the button reads Copied for a moment afterwards. If the browser refuses clipboard access the names are on screen to select by hand. Press space or Draw for a fresh set, which replaces the list rather than adding to it.

The list is written for this tool and the four group labels are the plain ones. They are a filter for picking a name out of a hat rather than a taxonomy: a penguin is filed under bird and a whale under marine, which is what a classroom game wants and what a biologist would want to qualify.