Striated Grassbird
Megalurus palustris
Streaky brown bird of fields, scrubby edge, and dense thickets. This large but retiring warbler is most often seen as a flash of chestnut rump and long, trailing tail as it flushes from close proximity. Occasionally perches out into the open, sometimes even on telephone lines. Warm brown with black streaking all over; size, shape, and habitat distinguish this species from similarly-colored cisticolas, prinias, and babblers. Song usually starts off with a few sharp introductory notes, then descends into jumbled, rich warbling. Gives “piht” calls, often repetitively.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Megalurus palustris
- Authority
- Horsfield, 1821
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Locustellidae
- Genus
- Megalurus
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- unknown
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Fiery-browed Myna
Enodes erythrophris
An unmistakable, long-tailed, conspicuous myna with a broad orange eyebrow, a pale eye, an ash-gray body, mossy green wings and tail, and a contrasting yellowish rump. Juvenile browner, with a narrower eyebrow and a dark eye. A montane species which frequents the canopy of forest and is usually encountered in pairs or small groups. Confined to Sulawesi. Frequently repeated call is a metallic, wet “wink” given singly or repeatedly.
Blue-headed Bee-eater
Merops muelleri
An easily overlooked forest bee-eater found in Central Africa and locally in East Africa, occurring in the forest interior and near forest edge and tree-fall gaps. Dark overall with a bluish to blue-purple head, belly, and tail, a red throat, a dark purplish-black face, a pale azure forehead, and a reddish back. May overlap locally with Blue-moustached Bee-eater in South-West Region, Cameroon, but Blue-headed Bee-eater has a pale forehead and no noticeable eye-line. Calls include a seldom-heard, two-parted “ji-up!”
Lemon-breasted Seedeater
Crithagra citrinipectus
A small gray-brown seedeater with a lemon-yellow rump, white tail tips, and a boldly marked face with pale patches (white to lemon-yellow) above and below the eye. The throat and upper breast are lemon-yellow in the male and buff in the female. Pairs and small flocks occupy savanna, grassland, and palm savanna, where the species is partial to Ilala Palm. It forages on the ground and in small shrubs and grass. The similar Yellow-fronted Canary is yellower, has a broader eyebrow, and lacks wingbars and the vertical dark stripe below the eye.
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