Gray-crowned Crocias

A small, slender-billed, warbler-like waxbill that is speckled and barred underneath with a reddish face and throat and a rather uniformly brown crown, back, wings, and tail. Forages in the understory and on the ground primarily for ants, alone or in small groups, sometimes in association with ant swarms and mixed-species flocks. Calls include soft whistled “ptiee” notes and repeated high-pitched descending whistles.

A thrush-sized olive-colored songbird with a long, fairly heavy bill. Plumage uniform olive-green except for narrow yellow chin, yellow patch between the bill and the eye, and partial yellow eye-ring above the eye. Pairs or small groups occupy forest, degraded forest, edges, and plantations from sea level to foothills. Unmistakable; limited to the island of Buru. Song starts with several soft “pip” or “chek” notes, then explodes in a series of variable whistles, e.g. “WEE-WEE-WEE-WEK-pewee-pewee-WEE-WEE.” Calls include dry “chek” notes and rasping “chirrrik” calls.

A very small nondescript sunbird with a short orange-based bill that curves uniformly along its length; easily mistaken for females of other sunbirds. The only features on the olive upperparts are indistinct paler eyebrows and lines running under the eyes, and yellow edging to the wings. Although often hidden, the male has yellow or whitish (not red) tufts at the shoulders. Singles are local and inconspicuous at the edges of lowland and riverine forest, sometimes entering secondary growth; it joins mixed-flocks and is frequently attracted to epiphytes in mossy clumps. Calls a high-pitched “tseeep” and trills. Little Green and Fraser’s sunbirds are similar to Bates’s but brighter, with straighter bills and more distinct yellowish eye-rings; Ursula’s Sunbird has a long decurved bill and grayish face and underparts.