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Snowy Egret: This is a medium-sized, totally white egret with a long slender black bill and yellow lores. The eyes are yellow, the legs are black, and the feet are bright yellow. The head, neck and back have long lacy plumes during breeding season. The diet varies but includes crustaceans, insects and fish. Buoyant flight with steady fast wing beats. The sexes are similar.
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Scripps’s Murrelet: Medium-sized Murrelet with black upperparts and white cheeks, throat, underparts, and underwing coverts. Bill is dark and thin. Eyes are brown with broken white eye-rings. Legs and feet are black. Feeds on small crustaceans and fish. Swift direct low flight with rapid wing beats.
Xantus's Murrelet was split in 2007 by the AOU into the Guadalupe Murrelet and Scripp's Murrelet.
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Sprague's Pipit: Medium pipit with streaked, brown upperparts, buff breast with dark streaks, and white throat and belly. Tail is brown with white edges. Thin, pale bill. Legs are yellow to pale brown. Its plumage blends well among prairie grasses, making it difficult to spot.
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Smew: Small merganser, mostly white body except for black back, mask, breast bar, and V-shaped nape patch. Wings are dark with large white patches. Gray legs, feet. Feeds on fish, aquatic insects, and their larvae. Swift direct flight with rapid wing beats. Flies in straight line or V formation.
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Steller's Eider: Small eider with black back and collar, white sides, buff-brown underparts with small but distinct black spot on side. White head has a dark tuft, black eye patch and chin. Wings are white with black primaries and a white-bordered blue speculum. Blue-gray bill, legs and feet.
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Snowy Plover: Small plover, pale brown upperparts, white underparts. Dark patches on either side of upper breast (partial breast band), behind eye, and on white forehead. Bill, legs, and feet are black. Wings have white stripes visible in flight. Dark tail has white edges. Dark gray legs and feet.
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Sharp-tailed Sandpiper: This medium-sized sandpiper has dark brown upperparts and white underparts with faint olive-brown streaks on breast and sides. It has a rufous crown, white eye ring and dark brown wings. The tail is dark brown and pointed in flight. Feeds primarily on mosquito larvae but also takes mollusks and crustaceans. Swift direct flight with rapid wing beats. Sexes are similar.
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Sabine's Gull: Small gull with gray back and white nape, rump, and underparts. Hood is solid black and eye-ring is dark red. Bill is black with yellow tip; legs and feet are black. The upperwings are gray with black primaries and white secondaries. Tail is slightly forked when folded.
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Short-tailed Albatross: Largest and only white-bodied albatross in the North Pacific. The head and nape have a golden-yellow cast, white wings have black edges and tips, and the tail is white with black fringe. Legs and feet are pink-gray. Feeds mainly on squid, but also eats fish and crustaceans. Dynamic soaring, glides for hours. Sexes are similar. Almost became extinct in the late 19th century.
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Scarlet Tanager: Medium tanager with brilliant red body, black wings, tail. The only bird in North America with this unique plumage. Heavy bill is yellow-gray. Gray legs and feet. Winter male has dull green upperparts, yellow-green underparts, often interspersed with red during molt.
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Sagebrush Sparrow: Medium sparrow, dark-streaked brown back, white underparts with central breast spot, streaks on sides. Gray head has white patch in front of eye. White throat has dark moustache stripe. Brown wings, two faint bars. Long tail is dark, white edged. Coastal form is darker.
Sage Sparrow was split into two distinct species in 2014 by the American Ornithologist Union. Bell’s Sparrow and Sagebrush Sparrow.
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Swainson's Thrush: Medium-sized thrush (swainsoni), with dull olive-brown or olive-gray upperparts, pale buff eye-ring, dark moustache stripe, and brown-spotted buff throat and breast, and white belly. Legs and feet are pink-gray. Flies in a swift, direct flight with rapid wing beats.
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Scissor-tailed Flycatcher: Medium flycatcher with pale gray upperparts and head, white underparts and throat, salmon-pink sides and flanks, and dark brown wings with white edges. Tail is long and scissor-like, black above with white outer edges and white below with black inner edges.
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Spoon-billed Sandpiper: Small sandpiper, scaled brown and black upperparts, red-brown wash on face, neck, spotted upper breast, white underparts. Most distinguishing characteristic is the extraordinarily flared tip on its black bill. Black legs, feet. Flight is swift and direct on rapid wing beats.
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Spectacled Eider: Smallest of the Eiders, has orange bill, white upperparts, black underparts, breast, sides, black pointed tail, yellow-green head and large white "goggles" bordered with black. White feathers on the upper mandible extend past nostril. Rapid direct flight in straight line formation.
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Slaty-backed Gull: This large gull has a slate-gray back, white head, belly, tail, and upper wings; dark outer primaries separated from mantle by row of white spots. Gray underside of primaries; broad white trailing edge to wings. It has pink legs and feet, yellow eyes with red orbital ring and a yellow bill with red spot near tip. Diet includes fish, crustaceans and insects. Sexes are similar.
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Siberian Accentor: Small, shy sparrow-like bird with brown-streaked upperparts, gray nape and crown with dark gray center stripe, yellow-brown eyebrows and underparts; breast shows brown streaking. Wings have a white wingbar. The tail is notched, the bill is short and black. Legs and feet are pink.
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