MADANG PROVINCE, PNG — This was our last morning in a village called Aihac, where we have lived among the Amele people since Friday.

I have done almost no birding, except yesterday when I saw a Hooded Butcherbird sitting on a coconut frond, tilting back its head and ruffling its pied plumage as it whistled its loud, musical song.

This morning, I was able to get looks at a blackish bird with metallic calls. Its eye was red; its tail was long and shallowly forked. It hunted actively in the mid-story, once clinging to the side of a tree and bracing itself with its tail. Jouko had lent me his photographic field guide for the weekend, and I quickly determined that the bird was a Spangled Drongo.

While I had the field guide, I also looked up cuckoo-doves, hoping that a photograph might clear up my doubts surrounding Tuesday’s bird. Sure enough, Brown Cuckoo-Doves are quite brown, even the males. The bird I saw was not brown. Furthermore, the descriptions of a Great Cuckoo-Dove call in this book match the call I heard.

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