Angry Birds is the mobile game John Kiriakou describes as “really my only vice, besides buying art.”[1] He plays Angry Birds 2, and as of July 2026 had played 2,887 consecutive days without missing one in nine years.[2][1]
It is the first thing he does on waking: he rolls over, puts on his glasses, picks up his phone, and starts “killing those pigs that are eating my birds’ eggs,” using accumulated black pearls to buy hats that raise his flock strength.[3] Asked by a stranger what level he had reached, he answered 1,708.[1] He has said that “for a while, it was like the only joy I had in life.”[3]
His ex-wife cited the habit as one of her reasons for wanting a divorce, objecting that he reached for the phone the moment his alarm went off; his defence was that he gets up an hour early, so nobody is missing out on anything.[2]
Crossword puzzles
At a physical, his doctor told him that at 61 he needed to keep his brain fresh and prescribed the New York Times crossword every day, including Saturday. Kiriakou now does the Washington Post, the New York Times and USA Today puzzles seven days a week, and gets up earlier still to do the crosswords first — because Angry Birds, unlike a crossword, tolerates interruptions.[4][5]
The 2026 ranking
Asked in his first Q&A which bird was his favourite, Kiriakou noted that “people ask me this a lot” and gave a full accounting. He likes the blackbird “very much cuz he explodes”, the inflating bird “because he inflates and destroys everything”, the newer bird that sucks everything up and spits it out, and the newest white one “that spins around and destroys everything.”[6]
His dislikes are as considered as his likes: Stella, the pink bird, because “Stella’s very weak”, and the bluebird “because the bluebird only can destroy glass.” The small red bird that can only knock things over he can “take her or leave her.” He closes by noting he had finished a session fifteen minutes before recording.[7]