Black-capped Rufous-Warbler

Medium-sized songbird of woodlands, neighborhoods, and parks. Male grayish brown with black head and wings, faintly orange flanks, and a dark-tipped yellow bill. Female similar but lacks the black head, has much paler orange on the flanks, and is an overall brownish tone. Male similar to Japanese Grosbeak, which has less black on the head, no orange on the flanks, and lacks the dark tip to the bill of most adult male Yellow-billed Grosbeaks. Often detected as it gives a hard "jik!" while flying overhead.

Resembles Sedge Warbler, but larger with a thick and well-marked white eyebrow and throat; contrasting dark cap; rufous rump, nape, and sides; short wings; and dark legs (pale in Sedge). Found in dense reed beds, often with bulrush stands. Makes muffled "treck" calls recalling a stonechat. Scratchy, repetitive song is given from the upper half of a plant stalk; does not sing in flight.

Very small coastal tern with forked tail. Nests on sandy beaches, where it is sensitive to disturbance. Very similar to Little Tern, which overlaps in range in parts of southern Australia. In breeding plumage, note yellow bill (in southern Australia lacking black tip) and orange-yellow legs. In contrast to Little Tern, Fairy has a gap between the black in front of eyes and the bill (in breeding Little, the black extends to the bill). In nonbreeding plumage, bill much darker. Hunts by flying low over the water and plunging down to snatch prey from the surface. New Zealand subspecies very rare and breeds only at four sites on the east coast of the southern Northland.