Bamboo Woodpecker

Tiny brown bird with a long tail and bill. Note streaked back and pale underparts. In flight, the white tail tips can be conspicuous. Found in all open habitats, including grassland, marsh, rice paddies, and moist scrub. Incessantly gives a dry “zip” call, often in a hovering flight display. Similar to larger Madagascar Lark, but has a longer tail and bill, and is usually seen perched up on grass or low bushes rather than walking on the ground. All other similar species have a different bill shape. 

A pale powder-blue-and-white seabird with a faint grayish dark “M” across the upperwings. Note the dark blue “thumb mark” collar, the blue eye-stripe, the white eyebrow, the white throat, and the grayish cap. Restricted to two known breeding islands, Saint Paul in the South Indian Ocean, and Gough in the South Atlantic. Almost identical to Antarctic Prion, but bulkier and more heavy-chested, with a slightly wider bill. All but inseparable from Salvin’s Prion, with which it shares the breeding island of Gough, and with which it was once considered one species; MacGillivray’s is incrementally broader-billed, but birds seen at sea may not be identifiable.

Dull brown fulvetta with pale eyes, found only in central and south-central China. Note streaky throat, dark lores, and pale, narrow wing panel. Distinctive in its blandness; no other fulvetta in the region is essentially all brown with no dark eyebrows or significant patches of warmer, brighter colors. Occurs at 2200-4300 meters, favoring areas with shrubby oak or rhododendron cover. Typically forages low down or at middle levels of forest. Not as social as the “Alcippe” fulvettas, and are often encountered singly or in pairs, though small groups do occur. Song is a simple but variable series of whistles in which the first note or two rise and the last one or two fall, sometimes with an intermediary note in between: “tsi-tsi-dih-deer-deer.” Call is a high-pitched chittery rattle.