Angola Swallow

Lanky, fierce-looking, glossy blackbird. A bit larger than a jay; smaller, proportionally longer-tailed and shorter-winged than a crow. Staring yellow eye and long heavy bill (compared to Red-winged Blackbird). Often in flocks with other blackbirds in winter. Forages in fields, scrubby areas, and open woods. Visits feeders.

A distinctive long-tailed paradise-flycatcher with different-looking sexes. Male is glossy blue-black with a pale blue bill and blue eye-rings; female has a dark crown, a gray face, rusty upperparts, and pale underparts. Juvenile is like female; young male slowly turns black. A common resident throughout São Tomé in the understory and at middle levels of most habitats. The only other flycatcher within its range is the dull brown Spotted Flycatcher, a scarce migrant. Calls include a rapid electric clicking and buzzing “dzzrt-dzzrt-dzzrt.” The song is a musical repeated “swee dzee-tee che-ree.” 

Medium-sized, lightly built petrel of offshore tropical waters across the Pacific; not seen from mainland. Plumage is highly variable (from white-bodied and dark-headed to wholly dark) and often very similar to larger and broader-winged Kermadec Petrel, which has a shorter and broader tail than Herald. Herald has white flashes on underside of wingtips, but lacks white shafts on upperside, which are diagnostic of Kermadec. Both species visit colonies in daytime, when pairs chase around high overhead.