Sombre Kingfisher

Angry-looking bird with a long spiky tail and brown plumage contrasting with a black throat and a rusty shoulder patch. Occurs in arid, scrubby woodlands where normally forages on or close to the ground. The song is a repetition of a short, fast “quebéc.”

Dull, relatively unmarked olive-brown warbler with a prominent yellowish-white eyestripe, faint wingbars, and pale whitish underparts. Visually inseparable from Japanese and Kamchatka Leaf Warblers; listen for song, an electric chattery trill. Also gives a metallic two-noted call and a short harsh buzz. Breeds in shrubby areas, often near water, throughout the Eurasian taiga. Breeding range extends to Alaska, where it is the only leaf warbler. Winters in lowland and foothill forest, forest edge, and gardens, primarily in Southeast Asia.

Very local. Breeds commonly (September to March) in groves of tamarugo trees in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile; most birds then migrate north to foothills of the Andes in northern Chile and southern Peru. Active and restless, feeding low to high in flowering trees, at times in small flocks. Identified readily by pointed bill, rusty bib, and rusty eyebrow on mostly blue-gray plumage; also note rusty vent and white wing flash. Immature and female average duller than male; briefly held juvenile plumage is heavily streaked below.