Barking Imperial-Pigeon

Flocks of these large sea ducks enliven northern coastlines. Males are white and black with a soft suffusion of green on the nape. Immature males are variable and messy-looking with patches of black and white. Females vary from rich rufous-brown to cold grayish, always with extensive black barring covering body and wings. Slight variation in bill shape and color across subspecies, especially obvious on males; Pacific birds have brightest orange bills, most others have greenish bills. Dives to feed on mollusks and other crustaceans. In late summer, look for flocks of females with dozens of ducklings; broods often join together. Compare females with other eider species, and note details of bill and head shape.

A handsome little bird with a stain the color of dried blood on its throat and lores. Bright yellow overall with black-and-silver eye rings and wingbars. Like most other shrike-babblers, tends to be rather slow and not particularly acrobatic, often trailing along on the edges of mixed flocks in hilly and submontane broadleaf forests. Gleans insects from foliage with a finely-hooked silvery bill. Gives a strong, insistent, and repetitive “wiCHE, wiCHE, wiCHE, wiCHE.”

Small, pale plover with broken black collar, sandy upperparts, grayish legs, and rather fine black bill. Breeding plumage has black mask and black tabs at sides of breast (not a complete band). Nonbreeding plumages have black replaced by brown. Mainly coastal, on sandy beaches, dry mudflats, and at salt ponds, usually near water; also locally inland. Migrants will join with flocks of other shorebirds.