Spot-winged Starling

Fairly distinctive for a pipit: blackish-brown above, including the wings, with bright golden feather edgings giving it a boldly streaked appearance. The chest and flanks are buff and lightly streaked. Look for the buffy-yellow eyebrow. Mostly encountered in well-preserved natural grasslands, favoring short grass areas that have regenerated after fires. Gives a series of sharp twittering notes ending with a slurred “eeeeeeeur.”

Small, distinctive starling with a blue-black back, a white throat, and a buff belly. Except in good light, the upperparts usually look black. The pale eye is always distinctive. Uncommon and local in montane forest. Found in the canopy, in pairs or small flocks; often perches up conspicuously on dead snags and other open perches. The call is a sharp “sveet” and the song is a high-pitched tinkling that is distinctive, but quiet and easily ignored. Separated from similar starlings by its pale throat.

A very little-known, large, black ground bird endemic to the upland forests on Waigeo Island. Black above with some chestnut in the breast and a bare pink head and throat. The male has rather distasteful flaps of bare red skin on the head and a wattle hanging down from the base of the throat. The male often twitches his head. The only other member of the family on Waigeo is the Dusky Scrubfowl, but Waigeo Brushturkey is larger with a pinkish head.