Chocolate Boobook

Attractive jay of oak woodlands and piñon-juniper forests. Royal blue above with gray-brown back and dirty grayish underparts. Flight style is often distinctive, a series of quick wingbeats followed by a stiff glide. Typically in small groups. Listen for scratchy, nasal calls. Regularly visits backyards and feeders. Most similar to California Scrub-Jay (and once considered the same species), but usually separable by range. Also note Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay is paler and more washed-out, with only a diffuse blue breast band. Population in central Mexico, often called Sumichrast’s Scrub-Jay, is darker and more contrasty than a typical Woodhouse’s, and might be a separate species.

Fairly small, dark, inconspicuous greenbul. The birds in Kenya and along the Albertine Rift have a gray crown, whereas the ones in central Tanzania and Malawi are uniformly olive-green. Found in the mid-story of montane forest. The western subspecies is known for its distinctive habit of creeping along branches like a woodpecker. Easily confused with other greenbuls, but slightly smaller and slimmer than other species in its range. Tree-creeping habits are distinctive when observed.

Slender-billed, glossy black bird of humid forest, woodland, thickets, and overgrown clearings; shape and habits like Gray Catbird of North America. Common on Cozumel Island, but generally uncommon to rare on the Yucatan mainland. Often sings from a prominent perch, but otherwise rather retiring and easily overlooked, mainly at low levels in bushes; also hops on the ground, flipping and fanning its tail. Told from other black songbirds in its geographic range by habits and slender bill.