Spotted Quail-thrush

A large, colorful francolin with chestnut and black on the head, and rufous on the heavily marked neck and underparts. The bill and legs are red. Found at middle and high elevations in alpine heath and forest edge habitat, often in pairs or small groups. Similar in size and shape to Erckel’s Francolin, but distinguished by different overall coloration and red bill and legs. The call is a repeated loud, grating “kek” or “ker-krek.”

Supreme understory skulker in montane forest, resembling a hybrid between a thrush and babbler. A dull and dowdy understory specialist with brown-olive upperparts and boldly-streaked cream-yellow underparts. Immature is more uniformly olive. Singles or pairs are highly localized residents working the leaf-litter in rich wet undergrowth of Eastern Arc montane forest, between 900–1800m, especially close to streams; shy and hops or runs quickly across forest-floor, seldom permitting absorbing looks. Vocalizations are variable, but most frequently utters a rich and fluty song “we-lu-we-lu-wel’li-lu” and sweet bulbul-like chattering calls. The Dapple-throat resembles immature robin-chats or thrushes, but lacks spotting and scaling on the upperparts.

An impressive long-tailed bird of wooded habitats including shade coffee plantations. Usually found in dense vegetation though sometimes found sunning in the open at first light with its tail spread. Note this species long straight narrow bill, brilliant red eyering, gray chest, and chestnut belly. The Mangrove Cuckoo is passingly similar but has a much shorter bill, a black mask, and lacks the red eyering visible on Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo. Secretive, but not shy, this species is often first detected by its voice. Song is a long, rapid, ratcheting “keh-keh-keh…” series that often accelerates and/or decelerates throughout. Other calls include a harsh, “craaa.”