Animal photographs make some of the most satisfying jigsaws, because fur, feathers and scales give almost every piece its own texture. A tiger’s stripes or a parrot’s wing are effectively a map — you can place a piece by pattern alone, without ever needing the picture. Portraits of a single animal against a blurred background are the exception, and the harder for it: the subject falls into place quickly and then you are left with a wall of soft green.
Start with the eyes and any hard edge between the animal and its background — those pieces can only go in one place, and everything else grows outward from them. Save the background for last; on a portrait it is usually the only genuinely difficult part. Fur and feathers are so distinctive that a high piece count stays comfortable here, so this is a good category to push past 500 on.
Difficulty: Usually easy to medium. Close-up portraits get harder near the edges. Every picture here is graded automatically by how much its neighbouring pixels differ, rather than by subject — why that is the thing that matters.
Pick any picture below, choose anywhere from 12 to 2000 pieces, and play free in your browser. Share one link to solve it with friends on the same table, or use a photograph of your own instead. Browse every category.