Gray Longbill

Macrosphenus concolor

A small, unusual warbler of forests that joins mixed-species flocks as it searches along vines and vegetation for food. Uniformly gray-green all over. Tail is short but extends past the wingtips, unlike a crombec’s; bill is long and straight. Song is a distinctive, rapid, repetitive “toWHEtoWHURtoWHEtoWHUR...” given in bouts of varying length.

Taxonomy

Scientific name
Macrosphenus concolor
Authority
(Hartlaub, 1857)
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Macrosphenidae
Genus
Macrosphenus

Range and habitat

Migration
Resident species

Conservation

Population trend
stable

Photos

Distribution

Bird Calls

Other Birds

Cassin's Vireo

Cassin's Vireo

Vireo cassinii

Fairly dull vireo, intermediate between Blue-headed and Plumbeous. Grayish-olive overall, but with yellowish flanks and greenish back. Note white spectacles contrasting with gray head and two whitish wingbars. Breeds in mixed coniferous forests, especially in mountainous areas; winters in Mexico. Often separable from Blue-headed and Plumbeous Vireos by range, but can overlap during migration and winter. Cassin's is less contrasty than Blue-headed, especially between the gray face and whitish throat, and the greenish back blends into the nape and crown. Some birds are best left unidentified.

Wilson's Bird-of-Paradise

Wilson's Bird-of-Paradise

Diphyllodes respublica

A fairly small bird of foothill forest on Waigeo and Batanta islands. Dark blue feet and strange pale blue skin on the top of the head divided by thin, black lines. Male has bottle green chest, red back and yellow on the back of the neck, all or which it can erect into elaborate ornamentation during the display at a court on the ground. Remarkable flattened, curly tail feathers reflect blue. The female is brown above with rufous in the wing and barred below. Unmistakable in range. Male gives a series of loud, downslurred “piuu!” calls, increasing in volume.

Southern Rockhopper Penguin

Southern Rockhopper Penguin

Eudyptes chrysocome

The smallest of the crested penguins. Note the thin yellow eyebrows that, once past the eyes, flare out toward the rear of the head. The species consists of two subspecies, the Eastern and Western Rockhopper Penguins. The Western Rockhopper Penguin breeds on offshore islands off southern Chile and Argentina and on the Falkland Islands, while the Eastern Rockhopper Penguin breeds on various subantarctic islands around New Zealand and the southern Indian Ocean. The Eastern has even eyebrows with pink skin at the base of the bill; the Western has black skin at the base of the bill, with an uneven eyebrow shape. Vagrants occasionally reach the Snares Islands. Distinguished from Snares Penguin by thinner eyebrow and smaller bill, and from Moseley’s Rockhopper Penguin by shorter, less flowing crest.

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