Elliot's Laughingthrush
Trochalopteron elliotii
Gray-brown laughingthrush with pale eyes and a prominent yellow patch on the wings. Can be very tame; a common sight around campsites, rest stops, and tourist attractions throughout much of its range. Garrulous and social, often seen in small to medium-sized flocks. When not scrounging for human-made trash, it forages on the ground and in low undergrowth, sometimes associating with other species in mixed flocks. Adaptable, inhabiting forests, open scrubby areas, and parks.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Trochalopteron elliotii
- Authority
- Verreaux, J, 1871
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Leiothrichidae
- Genus
- Trochalopteron
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Taiga Flycatcher
Ficedula albicilla
Small brown flycatcher with a sharply contrasting black-and-white tail. Breeding male has an orange throat patch surrounded by a faint gray wash. Non-breeding male has darker flanks and far less orange on the throat. Female is cold brown above and dirty-white below. Red-breasted Flycatcher can be very similar; in Taiga, note restricted orange patch and gray throat wash in breeding male and overall colder coloration and darker bill. Voice also differs: Taiga has a more complex song comprised of whistles and trills, and a dry trill, faster than that of Red-breasted. Breeds in forested areas, favoring coniferous and mixed deciduous tracts with clearings and waterways. Winters in various wooded or shrubby habitats.
Rufous-breasted Leaftosser
Sclerurus scansor
Very secretive nondescript bird that moves stealthily on the ground of humid forests, digging in the leaf litter, where it is normally difficult to see. Brown overall with a long and slender bill, a rufous rump and breast, and a white throat. The rather infrequently given song is a sharp descending trill.
Lesser Bird-of-Paradise
Paradisaea minor
A large bird of lowland and foothill forest and edge. Both sexes have yellow back and yellow eye. Male has a chestnut breast and white and yellow plumes which he raises above his back during his display, in which he flaps his chestnut wings. The male is distinguished from Greater by his yellow back and Emperor by his brown chest. Females distinguished from other species by their white underparts and black hood. Male gives a typical, repeated, nasal squawk.
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