Austral Blackbird

Medium-sized hummingbird, distinctive within limited range: overall shimmering green with sharply defined white belly. Wings are browner and rump is coppery. Sexes alike. Found around open forest edges and second growth, usually singly.

Fairly common little bird of grassland and weedy areas in the tropical lowlands and foothills. Occurs from Texas to Panama. Often in flocks, mixing readily with other “weed-eating” small birds. Plumage is very variable, but all birds have a stubby dark bill with a curved culmen. Usually shows two whitish wingbars. Breeding plumage males with a black cap and bold white collar are usually outnumbered by female-plumaged birds, which are plain brownish, sometimes showing buffy wingbars.

A pale powder-blue-and-white seabird with a faint grayish dark “M” across the upperwings. Note the dark blue “thumb mark” collar, the blue eye-stripe, the white eyebrow, the white throat, and the grayish cap. Almost identical to Antarctic Prion, but bulkier and more heavy-chested, with a slightly wider bill. Essentially identical to MacGillivray’s Prion, with which it shares the breeding island of Gough, in the South Atlantic; MacGillivray’s has a slightly broader bill, but identification likely to be impossible at sea in most cases. Present species also breeds on the Crozet and Prince Edward Islands, and ranges from off southern Africa to New Zealand.