Scrub Tanager

Unmistakable: a red parrot with a diagnostic dark cap, forest-green wings, and a slim yellow necklace. Juveniles show a broader yellow band, more violet on nape, and a brown bill (red in adults). Secretive pairs occupy hill forest on the island of Seram. The only red parrot in its range with a dark cap, green wings, and a yellow necklace. Gives harsh screeches and raptor-like whistles.

A large, long-tailed, iridescent blue-green to purple glossy starling with barred wings, and a round-tipped tail. Pairs, groups, and small flocks are resident in dry savanna, especially near thorn trees, where they have become common in camps and often associate with humans. The species feeds on the ground, walking with long strides and sitting low in trees, searching for insects, small vertebrates, and plant matter to eat. The similar Meves’s Starling differs from Burchell’s Starling by being bluer and smaller, with a more strongly graduated tail that is proportionately longer.

Rather local on seacoasts and remote islands south of Tierra del Fuego and on the Falklands. Favors rocky beaches and adjacent shoreline, especially with tussock grass clumps nearby (known as Tussacbird on the Falklands). Like other cinclodes, feeds on the ground, poking under seaweed, and can be very tame. No similar species in range: note dark sooty-brown plumage with only a ghosting of typical cinclodes face stripes and wing stripe. Some regional variation—bill has pale creamy patch at base on South American population and is all dark on birds in the Falklands.