White-fronted Wattle-eye
Platysteira albifrons
A cute and dumpy black, gray, and white flycatcher-like bird with striking red eye-wattles and white wing-stripes. The sexes differ: male has a broad black chest band and dark gray upperparts; female has completely white underparts and is duller gray above. Juvenile browner, lacking eye-wattles. Pairs are resident, flitting around the middle canopy of dry thickets, gallery forest, and mangroves in coastal northwest Angola and the adjacent Democratic Republic of Congo. Calls include a repeated grating “grrrrt-grrrt-grrrt” interspersed with clicks and buzzing notes, similar to other wattle-eyes. Black-thrated Wattle-eye marginally overlaps in the north of White-fronted Wattle-eye’s range, but it differs by the male being darker above and lacking white above the bill, and by the female having a brown throat.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Platysteira albifrons
- Authority
- Sharpe, 1873
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Platysteiridae
- Genus
- Platysteira
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Tahiti Reed Warbler
Acrocephalus caffer
A large, slender warbler with a disproportionately long bill, short wings, and a long tail. Face and eyebrow yellowish-buff with a dark eye-stripe and a pale throat. Upper body and wings mostly dark with pale edges to feathers, giving a messy mottled appearance. Some birds are much paler, often almost entirely white with some mottling. An entirely dark sooty morph occurs. Found in riverine and hillside forest with stands of bamboo up to 600 meters of elevation. Song is a long, slow sequence of warbled phrases and “churr” notes. Calls include harsh churring and “tchak” notes.
Common Grasshopper Warbler
Locustella naevia
Extremely skulky warbler. Plumage dark gray-brown overall with wide black streaks on back; also note long undertail coverts with big dark centers. Favors damp grassy thickets, heaths, and other rank shrubby habitats, often near water. Very skulking, and rarely seen unless singing. Sings from perch in grass or low bush, mainly late in the day (sometimes at night): a prolonged, insectlike, reeling trill. Calls include a high-pitched “pik.”
Firethroat
Calliope pectardens
Male is stunning, with a metallic blue back, a black mask extending down to the shoulder, and a burning flame-orange throat and breast. Female is plain brown and very difficult to distinguish from female Indian Blue Robin (which generally breeds at lower altitudes than Firethroat) and Siberian Blue Robin (which overlaps with Firethroat only on migration); look out for the female Firethroat’s relatively brighter white throat, darker underparts, and lack of scaling on the breast. The species is shy, keeping to the undergrowth, but will emerge into the open to sing; song is repetitive and pleasant, with imitations and deeper notes thrown in. Breeds in dense, low montane vegetation; winters in similar habitat in lower foothills.
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