Common Scale-backed Antbird

Small, scarce fruiteater found in cloud forest in the eastern foothills of the Andes. Both sexes are mostly green. Male has a ruby-red throat and a yellowish belly. Female has a yellow chin and yellow scaling on the belly. Female is similar to female to Scarlet-breasted Fruiteater but smaller and with a black (not orange) bill. Feeds on berries in middle to upper levels in the forest, and often found in pairs.

A medium-sized dark-backed albatross with pale underwings outlined by a narrow dark border and a dark notch in the armpit. The adult has a whitish head with grayish cheeks that give it a “white-capped” appearance. The gray-green bill has a yellowish tip to both mandibles. Juveniles are grayer on the head with gray bills. The species breeds on islands off Tasmania and New Zealand but disperses widely across the southern Oceans between 15 and 60°S, where it is a frequently encountered pelagic seabird. Similar albatrosses have a dark-tipped (not pale-tipped) lower half to the bill, and Salvin’s Albatross has a pale gray head and Chatham Albatross a slaty-gray head, further differentiating them from White-capped Albatross. Juveniles of these three are very difficult to separate.

A rather large, secretive, variable ground-thrush with mostly orange-rufous underparts and olive-brown upperparts, double white wingbars, and a distinctive smudged blackish mask spreading from the base of the bill to the ears, broken by a partial white eye-ring behind the eye. Rare, found in pairs in montane forest between 800 and 2300 meters of elevation in two discrete populations in the Cameroon Mountains and the Itombwe Highlands. Prefers wetter forest, including gullies and ravines where it forages on the ground, but sings from the forest canopy. Song is a rich mellow series of whistles, “chroo-woo-doo-too-loo-do-chu”; alarm call is a typical high-pitched thrush “ssreee.” No other ground-thrushes have a black face mask.