Pemba Sunbird

Long-tailed with long, slender bill that is sharply downcurved. Drab grayish-brown without any markings. Paler on throat; warmer orangey color on belly. Often hard to see when lurking in dense shrubs. Sings from prominent perches. Song is seemingly endless and complex. Forages primarily on the ground. Range restricted to dense brush and woodland in California and Baja California.

A long-tailed kingfisher of lowland and foothill forest. Brown head and back, orange underparts and rump, deep blue shoulder and long tail with narrow white tips. Sits quietly in the mid-story, occasionally pumping the tail and flicking it right up when startled. Similar to Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher, but Brown-headed has a brown rather than black and blue head and lacks the white stripe down the back. Song, a rising and falling (or just falling) and accelerating series of notes ending in a trill “weeep weep wewewewweewe……..”

Large, stocky, long-tailed sparrow. Uniform matte brown, with rich cinnamon tones on face and orange undertail coverts. Also note very limited streaking on upper breast with no central spot. Occurs in chaparral and other tangled shrubby, dry habitats. At home in neighborhoods and gardens in lowland California towns. Forages primarily for seeds by running and hopping on the ground. Visits feeders. Essentially no range overlap with the very similar Canyon Towhee; also note California has plain brown crown and obvious rusty tones on face.