Ventriloquial Oriole

Attractive stout-billed toucanet of lowland rainforest. Males are black above, brown below, with a yellow patch extending through the eye; females similar but red-brown above. Typically found in mature upland rainforest, but occasionally found around forest edges and in floodplain forest. Listen for its distinctive growling call, a repeated “grruk” guttural grunt.

This familiar ash-brown colored babbler has a yellow bill and a dark brow in front of the eye that contrasts with its pale eye giving it a perpetual “angry” look. It has vague streaking on the upperparts, diffuse mottling on its throat, and barring on its tail. The multiple races vary slightly in color and strength of markings except the race somervillei of the NW peninsula which has dark brown outer wing feathers that contrast with the rest of the wing. They are often seen in noisy flocks hopping on the ground and flicking litter in search of food.

A graceful aerial feeder found over a wide variety of open habitats, especially near water, including marshes and towns. Often seen on exposed perches including power and telephone lines in villages. Commonly found in flocks of up to twenty birds, sometimes mixing with other swallows and martins. Note the male’s diagnostic glossy purple-blue plumage and snow-white belly. Females and immatures are similarly patterned, but have brown mixed with the blue and are probably not safely separable from Cuban Martin. Female and immature Purple Martins are very similar, but they often have a scaly breast and finely streaked belly, with less contrast between belly and chest. Notably, Cuban and Purple Martins are not present in this species’ range from March to September. Calls include a harsh “churr,” a buzzy “zwick-zwick,” and a musical buzzy burbling.