Black-capped White-eye

A very widespread small heron, common across much of the globe. Small size and overall gray color separates from most other herons and bitterns. Look for contrasting dark cap, distinct pale edges on wing feathers, and white and rufous stripes on front of neck. Juvenile streakier below than adult. Similar to Green Heron but note mostly gray neck with restricted rufous. Juvenile is much smaller and more slender than juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron, with long streaks on the chest and spotting restricted to the wings. Normally solitary, found standing quietly around wetland habitats such as marshes, agricultural fields, rivers, and lakes.

Sprightly, small warbler that poses a bevy of identification issues. Dull olive above and yellow below, with a bright eyering and a gray crown bound in by black stripes. Extremely similar to closely-related Martens’s, Gray-crowned, White-spectacled, and Bianchi’s Warblers; often impossible to identify if seen poorly in where range overlap is possible. Weak or absent wingbar distinguishes this species from Whistler’s, Bianchi’s, and White-spectacled warblers. Slightly larger-billed and shorter-tailed and with more restricted white in outer tail feathers than Martens’s and Gray-crowned warblers. Breeding altitudinal range (600–1500 m) can be helpful: does not overlap with higher-breeding Bianchi’s Warbler (1760–3100 m in China) and minutely with Martens’s Warbler (1200–2300 m). Overlap more extensive with Gray-crowned Warbler (120–1830 m in China) and White-spectacled Warbler (1000–1750 m in China). Simple, short song can be an identification clincher: a brief “che-witchy-chew-witchy-chew”, lacking the trilled notes of Martens’s, Gray-crowned, and White-spectacled warbler, and higher in pitch than Bianchi’s Warbler. Forages low, often in dense growth, of temperate evergreen forests, descending during the non-breeding season into forested lowlands, where overlap with non-singing similar species can make identification nearly impossible.

Although not actually pale, this brownish songbird is one of the plainer thrushes in its range. Found in areas of open woodland and scrubland; less tied to extensive forests than other thrushes, particularly in the winter, when it may often be found near reedbeds and in thickets. Sexes similar, both earthen-brown above, paler below, with grayish head, but male has darker ash-gray face, female a dingy white throat. White tail corners obvious in flight.