Blue-moustached Bee-eater

A fairly large cuckoo with uniformly dark gray upperparts, head, and throat, with deep chestnut below. Juvenile is brown and heavily barred all over. Confined to forested hills in the Moluccas. Distinguished from Brush Cuckoo by its preference for dense habitats, and by the extension of the chestnut color to the chest. Song is also faster than Brush Cuckoo’s. Piping whistles include “wit-wit-wit-wit…” uttered at relatively level pitch, and piping notes, “pip-pip-pip-pip-pip-pipPIPPIPPIPPIPIPIPPIPIPIPIP…”, getting louder and faster by the end.

Medium-sized woodpecker with bold black-and-white barring on back and a cream-colored belly. A patch of yellow on the lower belly can be difficult to see. Male has red crown and yellow nape. Female lacks red crown. Distinctive in range, but hybridizes with Red-crowned Woodpecker; hybrids best left unidentified. Found in open woodland, edges, and gardens.

A medium-sized dark-backed albatross with pale underwings outlined by a narrow dark border and a dark notch in the armpit. The adult has a whitish head with grayish cheeks that give it a “white-capped” appearance. The gray-green bill has a yellowish tip to both mandibles. Juveniles are grayer on the head with gray bills. The species breeds on islands off Tasmania and New Zealand but disperses widely across the southern Oceans between 15 and 60°S, where it is a frequently encountered pelagic seabird. Similar albatrosses have a dark-tipped (not pale-tipped) lower half to the bill, and Salvin’s Albatross has a pale gray head and Chatham Albatross a slaty-gray head, further differentiating them from White-capped Albatross. Juveniles of these three are very difficult to separate.