Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird

Small songbird with long tail, slim bill. Dark gray above, pale below, with a variably dark gray chest band. Often droops tail, showing very long white tips to tail feathers. Gray Fantail has pale wingbars, a narrower thin black breast band, and more prominent eyebrow. Inhabits dense vegetation of paperbark forests, mangroves, and swamps.

A fairly large bird of mid-montane forest. Male, mainly black plumage with 2 remarkable erectile fans which are lifted up over the head during its display. Metallic, blue-green, trapezium-shaped breast shield and patches above the eyes. Female has a dark brown back, barred underparts and a black head. Adult male is unmistakeable, but female is distinguished from Western Parotia female by its smaller size and Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise female by its larger size and black bill. The male’s yellow-green mouth interior is visible while it gives its piercing nasal screech.

A small barbet that frequents forest, forest edge, and even urban areas with enough vegetation. Despite its name, the yellow throat is not often obvious; instead look for this species’ overall pale whitish underparts and black upperparts with a distinctive white moustache. Shows a small yellow rump when seen from above. Not all individuals have a yellowish throat; this is more common in the western part of the range. Similar to Red-rumped and Yellow-rumped Tinkerbirds, but note the Yellow-throated Tinkerbird’s overall bicolored appearance, its fast nasal song, and, in the west, its yellowish throat. Song is a typical fast, nasal tinkerbird song with short, rapid sets of 2-5 “po-po-po” notes given at approximately 5 notes per second, often with hesitant pauses between note sets.