Quiz 22 picture

QUIZ 22

Ivory Gull Pagophila eburnea
Slightly larger than Common Gull (Larus canus), but proportionately shorter-winged and more stocky, this bird should be easily identifiable in all plumages. Adults are entirely ivory-white throughout the year, with black eyes and legs and a yellow-tipped greyish bill. The face may be stained darker from feeding, as shown on this picture. The first-winter bird is white, with a blackish forehead, lores and chin, and prominent white eye-ring in front of eye. Its plumage is marked with various amounts of delicate black spotting on mantle and scapulars, rarely also on breast, and wings have black subterminal spots on coverts and tertials and black crescentic tips to primaries, broadest on outermost feathers (on some birds also extending on secondaries). The tail shows black subterminal marks forming broken bands, sometimes also with black spots on uppertail-coverts. The dusky face and extent of spotting is reduced in first-summer plumage, after which appearance is much as adults. The breeding grounds include Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, Canadian arctic and northern Greenland.

Bird photographed by Greg Brinkley.

Quiz 23 picture

QUIZ 23

Black-hooded Sierra Finch -Phrygilus atriceps

With its black or blackish head and a golden chestnut back, the male Black-hooded Sierra Finch shows a golden yellow rump and blackish wings and tails feathers. The bird is bright golden yellow below, with breast and sides washed with golden brown. The lower flanks and abdomen are white. The birds from the northwest bolivian Altiplano have almost black wings. Females are similar but the head is dark grey, and palest on nape, nearly indistinguishable from the male Peruvian Sierra-finch (Phrygilus punensis), but shows brighter yellow underparts and... is often accompanied by male.

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Bird photographed by Joëlle Dugauquier.

Quiz 24 picture

QUIZ 24

Singing honeyeater Lichenostomus virescens

The singing honeyeater is Australia's most widespread honeyeater, ranging across the continent west of the great dividing range from coast to semi-arid interior, cultivated land and gardens. It's a medium-sized honeyeater. Its head is distinctive, with long black stripe through eye and down nape over shorter yellow stripe from eye to ear-coverts. Below this runs a less conspicuous pale grey stripe, widening as it reaches nape. Upperparts are grey-brown, under-parts pale buff, with pale brownish streaks. Sexes are similar. Throughout it's range it frequents open scrubby shrubberies' wether in mallee or mulga or even coastal heaths. Singing Honeyeaters are rather sedentry in small numbers of two to five birds which feed solitarily. Foraging is done in low foliage where they switch between nectar, insects and fruit as the opportunity offers. Insects taken include beetles, weevles, moths, caterpillars, wasps, ants, flies and lerps. The honeyeaters also eat about 40 species of fleshy fruits. The seeds are swallowed but not digested so the birds act as dispersing agents. Despite its name, the Singing Honeyeaters is not an accomplished singer, it produces rather harsh calls but does advertise territory in rollicking duets between pairs. The nests are often parasitised by Pallid Cuckoos.

Bird photographed by Kevin Roberts.

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