Black-chested Jay

Medium-sized crake with dense whitish spotting and speckling on the neck and breast. Also note greenish legs and short yellow bill with a reddish base. Breeds in freshwater marshes and wet meadows with dense vegetation cover, but migrants and wintering birds may also be found in ephemeral wetlands and brackish marshes. Retiring and rarely seen, but sometimes comes out at muddy edges, mainly early and late in the day. Song is a series of repeated “huit, huit, huit” notes.

A small, slender-billed, mostly slate-gray cuckooshrike that shows extensive pale edgings on the wing feathers. Male has a black face and throat, while on females, black is limited to the area between the bill and eye. Singles, pairs, or groups can be found in wooded areas, plantations, and scrub from sea level to foothills. Confined to the Sula Islands. Smaller and more slender-billed than Slaty and Black-faced Cuckooshrikes. Male is darker overall than Black-faced Cuckooshrike, with no white tail tip and a less distinct black face mask, and black does not extend onto breast. Gives an upslurred nasal “whirrt” as well as “pik” notes.

A mostly black inhabitant of swamps and marshes. The male has a telltale orange-red shoulder patch with pale yellow trim, which the female lacks. Both sexes of Tawny-shouldered Blackbird have a yellow-orange shoulder, though the shoulder color is sometimes only visible in flight. The Shiny Cowbird lacks a shoulder patch, is quite glossy, and has a shorter and stouter bill than Red-shouldered Blackbird. The call is a “chut” or “chut-chut” and song is a shrill “Shuh-reee-eee.”