Heard Island Shag

Beautiful azure-blue male exhibits a black nape patch and a thin black gorget. Female lacks the black nape patch and gorget markings, with gray-brown wings and bright blue only on the head. Both male and female show black feathers on top of the bill and grayish-white underparts. Inhabits both dry and wet forested areas from sea level up into foothills. Like flycatchers, hawks in mid-air to catch its prey. Often joins mixed flocks. Song is a bland, unremarkable “wi-wi-wi-wi-wi-wi-wi.” Calls include harsh nasal “wheh” and an explosive “whi-cheh!”

Medium-sized, strikingly patterned songbird endemic to Taiwan, where less common than Taiwan Scimitar-Babbler. Brown above, white below, with rich olive-brown flanks, rusty undertail coverts, and black “necklace” of blobby black streaks. Inhabits foothill and montane forests, where it skulks in undergrowth and shrubby edge. Pairs duet, giving bouncy-sounding hoots; alarm calls harsh and grating.

A tiny parrot of forest on Biak and Numfor Islands. Typical pygmy-parrot shape with green body, yellow under the tail and brown face. Male has yellow mark down the center of the underparts and a yellow spot behind the crown. Numfor birds have a blue crown and males a blue cheek. Nuthatchlike behavior, foraging for lichens and fungus. As with other pygmy-parrot species, makes a nest in arboreal termitaria. The only pygmy-parrot in range. Call, a high-pitch twittering.