Plain-backed Pipit

Found only on Raso Island of the Cape Verdes. Overall grayish-brown and moderately streaked including the breast. Note the large and heavy bill. Sometimes erects small crest. Belongs to the same genus as Eurasian Skylark, but is smaller with shorter wings and tail than Eurasian Skylark. Found along dry riverbeds on flat plains. Song is similar to that of Crested Lark. Call a short rattle, "Chureep."

An East Asian teal-like duck. Males are distinctive, with an iridescent head that flashes green and copper, a silvery body with distinct scalloping, extremely long curved tertials, long pale scapulars, and a triangular white throat patch outlined in dark green. Brownish females resemble female Gadwall but have a dark bill. Breeds in northern interior marshes and winters on rivers, lakes, and coastal wetlands, often in flocks with other ducks.

Tiny waterbird, the size of an elongated grapefruit. In nonbreeding plumage, they are black above and white below with a black stripe on the side of the neck and a white comma behind eye. Short, stout bill. Horizontal posture like a football floating on the water. Dives frequently when feeding. In winter, only likely to be seen from land following the passage of a storm, otherwise stays well offshore. Found singly or in flocks. Much smaller than guillemots or puffins, with fast wingbeats and low, twisting flight that recalls a flock of sandpipers. Breeds in large numbers in Greenland and Europe; rare at alcid breeding colonies in Alaska. Birds in breeding plumage have an all-black head and chest.