Sibilant Sirystes

This red-eyed masked-weaver has a plain olive-green back and pink-brown legs. The breeding male has a black face mask, with the black band on the forehead above the bill varying from broad in the south to narrow farther north. Female and juvenile are dull and inseparable from other masked-weavers. Pairs and colonies are localized residents of reedbeds, wetlands and adjacent woodland, in a narrow global range between northeastern Zambia and southeastern DRC. The breeding males of Katanga and Southern masked-weavers are very similar, but the former are smaller, have some saffron around the masks, and have darker green backs and rumps; breeding male Tanganyika and Lake Lufira Masked-Weavers have more burnt-orange around the face and underparts, and ranges do not overlap.

Small hummingbird with obviously decurved bill. Male mostly glittering green with coppery crown and bright white outer tail feathers; female similar but with white underparts. Bill shape and white outer tail feathers are enough for identification. Found in forests and edges, usually singly but males sometimes gather to display.

A small, very rare Hawaiian honeycreeper of remote native forests on Kauai. Declining rapidly; found only above 4,000 feet elevation in the eastern ‘Alaka’i Plateau. Males are yellow with a small black mask and females are greenish. The crossed bill that is uses to pry open leaf buds in search of insects and larvae is difficult to see. The longer tail with a notched tip distinguishes it from other small honeycreepers. Its rarely-heard song is a wavering trill that changes in speed and pitch. Call is a soft upslurred “suweet.”