Eastern Buzzard

A medium-sized, electric-blue-backed kingfisher with a distinctive bicolored bill: red above and black below. Pairs and singles mostly hunt insects in taller dry woodland, riverine forest, and forest edges. Its loud and characteristic call is a high-pitched “tuuui”, followed by a pause and then a trilling, down-slurred “trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”. Sometimes it advertises by sitting upright, extending its wings to show a bold wing pattern, and calling. Almost all of Africa’s other similar kingfishers have a uniformly red-orange (not bicolored) bill, except the Blue-breasted Kingfisher, which differs by being larger, having a complete pale-blue breast band, and preferring denser lowland rainforest.

Large, distinctive corvid, roughly the size of a Eurasian Jay. Note the long and heavy bill, white-flecked face, and black cap. Note unspotted dark brown back and sides. Short tail, white vent, and white tail markings evident during undulating, woodpecker-like flight. Inhabits coniferous and mixed forests, from lowlands up into high montane forests. Often stores nuts for the winter. Mostly resident but large numbers may irrupt periodically out of the normal range in response to food shortages. Gives a variety of calls, especially during the breeding season, including harsh grating rasps, as well as quieter “mumbling” calls and mimicry. Formerly grouped with Northern Nutcracker under the more generic “Eurasian Nutcracker.”

Dark brown, fork-tailed seabird of the northwestern and central Pacific, where it breeds on Japanese and Hawaiian islands. Generally forages far offshore and does not associate with boats. Dark chocolate-brown overall with prominent pale carpal bars. In optimal light, rump is slightly paler than the plumage of the back and tail, unlike in Markham’s and Leach’s Storm-Petrels; in fresh plumage, note gray sheen to head and back. Lacks the distinctively pale primary shafts of Matsudaira's and Swinhoe’s Storm-Petrels.