Black-tailed Antbird

This sharply attired black-and-white starling has a pointed yellowish bill with an orange base. Mainly black upperparts with white belly and white rump noticeable in flight. Note the bare, deep orange patch around its eye that contrasts with its white cheek. Easternmost birds have a white, streaked forehead. Seen in loose flocks close to human habitation feeding on human refuse. Garbage dumps, damp grazing lands, and well-watered parks are its favoured haunts. Noisy with a variety of calls that includes mimicked sounds of other birds.

Active small bird of humid tropical forest. Usually found singly, often moving with mixed-species feeding flocks. Clambers and climbs on small branches, twigs, and vines, mainly at middle to upper levels inside forest. Often hangs upside down like a chickadee. Note the bold white whisker mark, boldly patterned black-and-rusty wings and tail, and short, wedge-shaped bill. Where range overlaps with Streaked Xenops, note the much plainer plumage in Northern Plain. Song is a short, high, liquid trill.

A fairly large honeyeater of mid-montane forest in eastern New Guinea. Body gray with white scaling on the back, olive wing feathers and buffy under the base of the tail. Pale green eye-ring and bare facial skin behind the eye with yellow lines above and behind. Similar to Belford’s Melidectes which it hybridizes with, but Yellow-browned has a pale bill and red wattles on the throat. Calls, loud parrotlike screeches similar to those of Belford’s Melidectes.