Rufous-naped Ground-Tyrant

Common large duck of lakes, ponds, wet fields, and estuaries. Dark brown overall, with a pale head marked by a whitish eyebrow and two black stripes on the face. Namesake yellow bill spot is visible even from a good distance. White underwings contrast strongly with dark body in flight. Highly adaptable and quite tame, foraging in city parks and small ponds close to human settlements.

Thickset, short-winged, pot-bellied gull. Adult has dark gray back and wings, intense pink legs, and an especially large white “crescent” (white tertial edges) near the wingtips when perched. Breeding adult white-headed; nonbreeding birds have variably heavy brown streaking on the head and upper breast. Takes four years for immatures to progress from mostly brown to fully white and gray adult plumage; intermediate plumages are often mottled and messy. Often looks rather frosty by the first winter; starts to develop a gray back and whitish eye in its second year. Primarily an Asian species, found in coastal regions from Japan and South Korea to Russia. Regularly occurs in western Alaska, but very rare elsewhere in North America.

Small black-and-white shearwater with relatively long tail and somewhat rounded wings. Usually flies low to the water with fluttering wingbeats, but in strong winds it can fly with high wheeling arcs. Undertail coverts are typically dark, but this can be very difficult to see in the field. Compare with Manx Shearwater, which is larger with longer, more pointed wings, light undertail coverts, and a darker face. Found over warm tropical waters, especially around floating mats of Sargassum weed. Often seen singly or in pairs but can gather in loose flocks, sometimes loafing with other shearwater species.