Yellow-sided Flowerpecker

A small, little-known bird of alpine grasslands of southeastern New Guinea. Adult has thick, silver bill, black face, brown back, yellow rump, whitish chest and sides, black from under the tail, along the sides of the pale belly, meeting at the lower chest. Gray-headed Munia overlaps slightly in elevation and the 2 species have be seen together in flocks. Adults are distinctive but juveniles are similar. Voice, some buzzing call notes and a thin “sii-sii-sii” in flight.

Well-named, this uniformly deep-blue jay occurs locally in highland evergreen and pine-evergreen forest. Like most jays, usually found in groups, often in association with mixed-species feeding flocks that include orioles, woodcreepers, and other jay species. Most likely confused with southern forms of Steller’s Jay, which occur in the same areas. Steller’s has bold white face spots, darker plumage with barring on wings, and short crest (which can be held flat). Also note rather different voices.

A medium-sized parrot that usually looks all dark. With a good view, note the deep bluish-purple color overall with bronzy wings, messy pink splotches on the upper breast, and red undertail coverts. In flight, the bright blue underwings often stand out. Also look for the very deep wingbeats that seem to almost touch on the downstroke and barely come above horizontal on the upstroke – this helps separate members of the Pionus genus from the larger Amazona parrots. Bronze-winged is fairly common in forest and adjacent clearings in lowlands and foothills, up to around 2,500m. It is usually found in small flocks, most often seen in flight but also perched in the canopy or around fruiting trees.