Melanesian Kingfisher

Plump, smooth-plumaged bird with a sleek crest and white and yellow markings on wings. Mostly clean gray with brighter rusty wash on the face. Look for rich rufous undertail. Breeds in open coniferous forests at high latitudes across the Northern Hemisphere. Winter range depends on fruit crops; sometimes descends much further south in large numbers. Often found in flocks feasting on fruiting trees like crabapple and mountain ash. Listen for their ringing trills, often given while flying overhead. Compare with Cedar Waxwing in North America and Japanese Waxwing in Asia; Bohemian is larger and grayer, with a different wing pattern and no yellow on the belly.

A relatively colorful, medium-sized, long-tailed cisticola. Note the gray-brown back with thick black streaks, the brown on the wing and cap, and the whitish underparts. Found in wetlands and moist grassland and scrub. As with other cisticolas, habitat and vocalizations are important to identification. Very similar to Winding Cisticola, but paler overall, and differs vocally. Also similar to Rattling Cisticola, but more colorful, with very different vocalizations: a wheezy, very high-pitched trill, and raspy “chi-dup” calls that are often given in a display flight. 

This large swallow has rusty-red underparts, a pale buff throat, and a white leading edge to the underwing that is obvious only in flight. It is mostly resident, although it is also a wet season migrant to the north of its range. Pairs prefer wooded savanna, nesting in banks, termite mounds, and often holes in trees, particularly baobabs. The Mosque Swallow may be confused with the juvenile Rufous-chested Swallow, but it lacks the latter species’ dark “ear-flaps” and buffy forward part of the underwing.