Black-browed Reed Warbler

A distinctive, heavy-billed black-and-white flycatcher-like songbird from the Kai Islands. Adult entirely black except for white lower chest and belly and white outer tail feathers. Juvenile gray-brown above and buffy below. Singles and pairs inhabit mangrove, forest, forest edge, and woodland in lowlands and low hills. Joins mixed-species flocks. Unmistakable in its limited range. Song is a single disyllabic whistle, “see-ooo,” descending in the latter half. Calls include a rasping, scolding “grrr-grrr-grrr…” and a weak, wavering chatter.

Uncommon but unmistakable inhabitant of middle- to high-altitude thickets. Bright green with fiery red tail edges, an orange throat, a black line through the eye, and flashing white dots on the wingtips. Females are slightly duller than males but are otherwise similar. Never in large numbers; usually seen singly, occasionally in pairs and trios. Often joins mixed-species foraging flocks.

Long-winged, wedge-tailed, delicate seabird of far northern climates, nesting in open wet tundra and wintering around sea ice, occasionally moving into coastal areas. Breeding adult astonishingly beautiful: pearly gray above, rose-pink below, with coral-red legs, thin black collar, and tiny black bill. Nonbreeding adult has a tiny black dot near the ear and loses the black collar and much or all of the pink coloration. First-winter birds have blackish “M” pattern in upperwing and black tip on wedge-shaped tail. Flight graceful and buoyant.