Rufous-capped Babbler

Desert kingfisher with a strong black eye-line occurring across most of the drier parts of Australia. Note grayish streaked crown (blue/green in similar Sacred Kingfisher). Upper-wing is entirely blue in flight. Seen well, the rusty rump is obvious. Perches on high dead trees or powerlines. Excavates tunnel nests in earth-walls and banks.

Widespread wagtail, favoring wet meadows, marshland, grassy and muddy lakeshores. Occurs in fields and often near livestock during migration. Like other wagtails, walks on ground and pumps its long, white-sided tail up and down. Plumage highly variable, but breeding male wholly bright yellow below, with greenish back. Male head pattern varies regionally: in U.K. has greenish head with yellow eyebrow; in northern Europe head slaty gray overall; in central and southwest Europe head blue-gray with white eyebrow; striking white-headed birds in Mongolia and northwestern China. Individuals of several subspecies may winter together. Female and nonbreeding plumages drabber and paler, with ghosting of male patterns. Songs and calls vary between subspecies, but most give some form of buzzy “dzeerdzeer” or downslurrd “tzree.”

A very small, pale gray tern with large dark eyes. Smaller and paler gray than Brown and Black Noddies with slightly more of a forked tail. Nests on rocky sea cliffs on tropical islands, typically foraging close to shore, fluttering close to the water and plucking food from the surface in small flocks. Voice is a distinctive nasal “kearr.”