Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is fairly difficult. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. 

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: A bit peckish?

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Feathered friends’ food.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

• FORT, FORTS, SEEN, STORE, BATE, RATE, FILE, LIFE, LIFER, TIES, FORTH, SILL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight, but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

• BUGS, SUET, FRUIT, SEEDS, MILLET, NECTAR, BERRIES

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is FORTHEBIRDS. To find it, start with the F that’s the first letter to the left on the top row, and wind over and down.

With a list price of $250, the TCL NxtPaper is an impressive budget phone that, in many ways, outperforms the Samsung Galaxy A16 5G at a similar price. It’s even better now that Amazon has dropped it by $70 during its Big Spring Sale, which brings the price of both black and white models to just $180.

There is no telling how long this deal will last, however, so be sure to get your order in sooner rather than later.

This phone hits top marks for everyday use. Its screen is large, the 120Hz refresh rate is buttery smooth, and the battery lasted CNET writer Tyler Graham throughout the entire day, even with frequent use. If you take a lot of selfies, you’ll enjoy a big 32-megapixel upgrade to the front-facing camera, though the camera system is otherwise similar to the TCL 50 series phones.

The shiny bonus features on the TCL NxtPaper 60 XE are the eponymous NxtPaper digital ink and e-reader modes and cloud-based TCL AI. You may not use these features often, but they are solid value adds to this budget phone. The 60 XE is working off a MediaTek Dimensity 6100 Plus processor with 8GB of memory.

«Compared to other phones in a similar price range, the TCL 60 XE NxtPaper 5G delivers where it counts for day-to-day use,» Graham wrote in his review, «and its impressive bells and whistles sweetened my experience with the phone.»

Why this deal matters

The TCL NxtPaper 60 XE is one of the most unusual smartphones we have reviewed recently. It definitely is worth considering if you’re on the lookout for a new budget handset. It is already fairly inexpensive, but this Spring Sale deal makes it a no-brainer for those looking for something a little different. Just make sure you get your order in sooner rather than later, as this deal could end at any time.