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
Gray-chested Jungle Flycatcher
Cyornis umbratilis
Smartly-attired, warm brown flycatcher with a bright white bib and a dark, broadly-based bill. Note large dark eyes and subtle brownish vest. An inhabitant of broadleaved forests from the lowlands up into submontane areas. Typically perches at lower or middle levels of forest. Bobs and spreads tail frequently. Song is a short series of high thin notes.
Rufous-winged Sparrow
Peucaea carpalis
Subtly marked sparrow with a poor name; "rufous wing" is restricted to a tiny, barely visible patch on the shoulder. Gray head and neck with peaked rufous crown and rufous eyeline. Stout pink bill. Sides are buff and unstreaked on adults. Back and wings are also buffy with fine markings. Paler throat is edged with thin dark lines. Primarily a Mexican species with very limited range in the U.S.; found in pairs or small flocks in brushy grasslands. Variable song usually composed of a few clear tinkling notes and trills.
Barred Parakeet
Bolborhynchus lineola
Small, fast-flying parakeet of humid evergreen forest in foothills and highlands, especially in areas with seeding bamboo. Usually seen in pairs or small groups flying high overhead; rarely seen perched. Note pointed tail, fast and slightly bounding flight, and habitat (no other small parakeets occur in highlands of Mexico and northern Central America). Blackish barring on upperparts only apparent with a good view.
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