Many-colored Rush Tyrant

Rare and declining, but still fairly abundant at its main wintering grounds at Poyang Lake, in China’s Jiangxi Province. Adult is unmistakable with all-white plumage, save for a crimson face and black wingtips. Juveniles are whitish, with a light brown head, neck, back, and wings. Typically found around lake edges and fields, where it forages in small to medium-sized groups, primarily for plant matter and invertebrates.

Small songbird, essentially identical in plumage to Arctic Warbler and Japanese Leaf Warbler. A late spring migrant, often moving up the Chinese coast from Southeast Asia in mid- to late May. Breeds in the taiga forests and forest edges of the Kamchatka peninsula, Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. Call is a low “chuck,” averaging lower than that of Japanese Leaf and Arctic Warblers. Song is a broken series of chattering notes, with each segment being in more discrete phrases than the more consistent, higher-pitched song of Arctic.

Dull brown bulbul; paler below than above. Thin orangish eyering around the bright red eye is diagnostic, but not always easy to see. Very similar in appearance to slightly larger Red-eyed Bulbul, as well as to the red-eyed Bornean form of Cream-vented Bulbul; Spectacled is best separated by its combination of stronger contrast of the gray-washed head and breast with the rufous-brown wings and rump. Throat coloration of Spectacled is intermediate between the starkly pale throat of Cream-vented and the brown-suffused throat of Red-eyed, and its bill appears smaller and sharper than in the former two species. Song is a jumble of cricket-like chirping and harsh scratchy notes. Calls are a bright and bubbly series of notes--“pi-di-pi-pi-di-di”--sometimes with a descending meow at the end. Inhabits lowland and foothill forests, usually found in more mature growth than Cream-vented and Red-eyed Bulbuls.