Yellow-eyed Starling
Aplonis mystacea
A medium-sized bird of lowland forest in southern New Guinea. All glossy black plumage with a bluish sheen, a longish tail and a mane of loose feathers around the neck. Note the yellow eye. Immature has pale underparts and streaking. Sometimes associates with Metallic Starlings. Similar to Singing and Metallic Starlings, but Yellow-eyed, has an obvious yellow eye. Singing also has a shorter tail and is usually found in towns or open areas. Song, similar to that of Metallic Starling. Call, a short raspy flight note.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Aplonis mystacea
- Authority
- (Ogilvie-Grant, 1911)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Sturnidae
- Genus
- Aplonis
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Other Birds
Dark Chanting-Goshawk
Melierax metabates
A tall, long-tailed, slaty-gray hawk with pink-orange legs and bill base. The flight feathers and wing tips are dark on both the upper and under wings, creating a uniformly dark wing pattern in flight. Pairs inhabit broadleaved woodland and well-wooded savanna. Chanting-goshawks give a strong, gull-like “kleeeu” call, hence their name. Dark Chanting-Goshawk always has a gray-barred rump, while other chanting-goshawks are paler, prefer drier habitats, and have unbarred white rumps. Eastern Chanting-Goshawk has yellow skin at the base of the bill. Pale Chanting-Goshawk has pale inner flight feathers and dark wing tips, creating a very contrasting wing pattern.
Olivaceous Greenlet
Hylophilus olivaceus
A small, vociferous vireo of east Andean cloud forest. Yellow underparts and crown, pale eye, and pinkish bill help separate it from other species in range. Usually stays high in the trees and sometimes follows mixed-species flocks. Sings frequently, belting out a squeaky and sometimes monotonous series of notes such as “twee-twee-twee…” or “soowe-soowe-soowe …”
Yellow-browed Tody-Flycatcher
Todirostrum chrysocrotaphum
Tiny, boldly colored flycatcher of lowland rainforest. Black and yellow with a boat-shaped bill. Found in the canopy of mature rainforest, often in upland areas; occasionally also found around forest edges, including sometimes around gardens and human dwellings. Listen for its song, a long, steady series of high metallic chips, given at a pace of slightly faster than one note per second.
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