Brown-backed Scrub-Robin

Large, lanky blackbird with rounded crown and long tail. Males have ridiculously long tails, almost as long as their body, often held in a V-shape like the keel of boat. Males are glossy black. Females are brown, with subtle face pattern. Eye color ranges from brown along western Gulf Coast to yellow on Atlantic Coast. Strictly coastal, except in Florida where they occur inland (often around human development). Overlaps with similar Great-tailed Grackle on Texas coast, but occurs more strictly in coastal saltmarshes and has dark eye (not pale).

A large-bodied, small-headed bird of odd proportions. Plumage is mostly dark, with dark legs and a dark head, but in good light shows a yellowish bill and reddish bare skin on the forehead with a very short light gray crest. Can be found in a variety of habitats, but prefers tall forest with an open understory. Often tame and approachable around settlements. Separable in the field from New Guinea Scrubfowl by much plainer dark plumage, smaller crest, and less extensive red on the head. Very vocal and loud, especially in the morning and evening, giving strange warbling catlike cries, “ME-ow, meow,” with the first note being higher pitched than the rest.

Large, dark-brown hummingbird with lilac-gold iridescent lower back and rump. Like other sunbeams, it has a proportionally short bill for a hummingbird. Inhabits high elevation, semi-arid montane ridges and cloud forests. You are my sunbeam, my Shining Sunbeam / You make me happy when you display / Aglaeactis cupripennis / Please don’t take my sunbeam away.