Sulawesi Cuckoo

Common in foothills of the Andes, from barren rocky canyons to villages, agricultural terraces, and scrubby hillsides, mainly at lower elevations than Bright-rumped Yellow-Finch, which favors puna habitats. Male is well-named—drab greenish yellow overall. Female is notably drab and nondescript. In all plumages note lack of any streaking or contrastingly bright yellow areas. Compare with longer-winged Greater Yellow-Finch (some overlap of range in winter).

A tiny, short-tailed bird with a small fine bill, yellowish underparts, a green back, and a gray head with fine grizzled black-and-white scaly patterning on the forehead. Pairs and small groups forage restlessly for invertebrates and fruits, dangling upside down while they search. The species occurs in desert and semi-desert scrub, preferring taller thorn trees for nesting. It is often detected by its song, a repeated series of 5-7 high-pitched “chiueew” notes. Multiple birds may also give simple high-pitched tinkling and rasping notes. The similar African Penduline-Tit differs from Southern Penduline-Tit in areas of overlap by being smaller, lacking a grizzled forehead, and having buff (not yellowish) underparts.

This scarce piculet is known only from a few locations in the humid lowlands of eastern Colombia, southern Venezuela, and northwestern Brazil. Its underparts are entirely barred, but upperparts are plain, lacking the barring shown by the otherwise very similar Lafresnaye’s Piculet. Inhabits light woodland and forest edge, and not found inside tall rainforest. Song is a high pitched “seep, seep, seep”, though sometimes only one or two notes are given. Call is a short, erratic trill.