BRDL

About BRDL

BRDL, which its makers call a birdification of Wordle, swaps the five-letter English word for a four-letter bird banding code. These codes, used by bird banders and birders across North America, are built from the bird's common name, so AMRO is American robin and GREG is great egret. Each day has one numbered BRDL, the same code for every player.

Play follows Wordle. You type a four-letter code, and only valid bird codes are accepted. Green marks a letter in the right place, yellow a letter in the code but in the wrong place, and grey a letter not in it. You have six tries, and you can copy your stats to share them.

The game came out of the Audubon Slack, forked from an earlier Wordle clone with code from Queerdle, using a list of codes compiled by rgeraldporter and put together by hootalex. It has a choice of colour themes named after birds and links to an explanation of bird codes for newcomers.

It suits birders who already know their codes, and players who want to learn them a few letters at a time.

How to play BRDL

1. Type a valid four-letter bird banding code and press Enter.
2. Read the tiles: green is the right letter in the right place, yellow is in the code elsewhere, grey is not in it.
3. Use what you learned to pick a bird whose code fits.
4. Find the code within six guesses, then copy your stats to share.

Tips

• Most two-word bird names give two letters from each word, as in MODO for mourning dove; one-word names usually give their first four letters, as in OSPR for osprey.
• Start with a code whose letters are common in bird names, such as one with A, R and O.
• If you are new to codes, read the site's link on what a bird code is before your first game.

Questions