Tropical Shearwater

A grayish bushshrike with green wings and tail and a unique head pattern: the black mask curls down to form a narrow black breast band surrounding the white throat. Some morphs have a purple dot at the base of the throat. Juvenile has less distinct face pattern than adult. A rare resident, restricted to a handful of sites in the Cameroon-Nigeria highlands, where it is found singly and in pairs in the canopy of primary hill forest between 930 and 1550 meters of elevation. Calls include an electric grating “cha-cha-cha-chggrrt-chggrrt-chggrrt” like a laser-gun sound effect in a computer game, as well as harsh croaking, whistles, and ticks. May snap wings when agitated. 

A fairly large dove of lowland and low-elevation montane forest. Has green upperparts to the back of the neck, a gray head and chest, a creamy belly, and white under the base of the tail, scalloped green. Note the purple spot across the flight feathers. The race from northern Luzon has a dark red crown. Similar to Black-chinned Fruit-Dove, but Cream-breasted has a narrow chest band and a cream rather than green belly. Song is a drawn-out, deep quavering “brrrrrrr.”

Small brown bird with large distribution from Costa Rica to Argentina. Rufous-brown overall with whitish eyebrow and a white stripe on the side of the face. Extensive streaking on crown and underparts separates from Plain Xenops. Compare with Slender-billed Xenops, which occurs primarily in lowland Amazonian forests where Streaked does not and is not as boldly streaked. Usually found singly or in pairs following a mixed-species flock. Occurs in mature forests and edges, from the understory to the canopy, but most often at middle levels. Can be found from the lowlands up to around 2,500 m.