White-cheeked Tit

A medium-sized gadfly petrel with long, pointed wings, long tail, and elastic, powerful flight. Bill is short and thick. Upperparts all dark. Has two color morphs—dark and pale. In pale morph, head and breast dark, contrasting with white belly, creating a hooded appearance. Undertail coverts dark. Dark morph is all dark on belly. In both morphs underwing has pale mid-wing panel across the entire wing.

Small and rather drab. Brown above, darkest on head and wings. Grayish-buff below with a grayer throat. Can appear uniformly gray in dull forest light. Dark eye lacks a white eye-ring. Most common in forest but also found in forest edge and brush. Giant White-eye similar but overall darker, with thick orange bill and pale yellowish eyebrow. Dusky’s most common call is a “cheee.”

Chunky finch-like tanager of high elevations. Males are yellow with a gray head, wings, and tail; females are similar but duller. Found in a variety of dry, open habitats including scrub, agricultural areas, and Polylepis woodlands. Often forages in groups on the ground, and may associate with other sierra-finches and similar species. Distinctive within its range; replaced by the similar Black-hooded Sierra-Finch farther south.