Green-backed Tailorbird

Small, confusing leaf warbler with olive-yellow upperparts, yellow brow, double wing bars, and a pale crown stripe. Extremely similar to many other small leaf warblers: Pallas’s Leaf Warbler has a brighter yellow brow stripe, and Chinese Leaf Warbler has an incrementally weaker head pattern and a small hook at the rear end of the black eye stripe. Lemon-rumped Warbler is extremely similar visually but averages paler on the brow stripe and darker on the underparts. Listen for the song, an accelerating series of sharp chips followed by a trill; its calls include a tinkling series of chips. Inhabits mid-altitude forests, usually bushy poplar and birch groves; found at lower altitudes than Chinese Leaf Warbler.

Halloween-themed laughingthrush: decked out in black, gray, and orange. Combination of black head, silver ear patch, orange neck and breast, and multicolored wings are unmistakable in range. Bizarrely reminiscent in patterning of much smaller Silver-eared Mesia and Golden-breasted Fulvetta. Inhabits mid- to high-altitude forests, where it rummages around in the understory in small groups. Makes an odd rising, screaming yodel that sounds strangely like the call of an Indian Peafowl.

A small, very dark brown shorebird with a very short thin bill and a distinct white eyebrow. Upperparts spotted with buff, underside spotted or barred with brown. Legs yellow or grayish. In flight, looks very dark with very rounded wings. Prefers coastal shoreline and bare gravel of tiny atolls. Combination of odd proportions, very short thin bill, and white eyebrow should make this species unmistakable. Most common call is a nasal “kek,” but when excited gives a loud piping whistle and a series of rising and falling trills.