Mottle-backed Elaenia
Elaenia gigas
Large elaenia with a striking headdress. It inhabits lightly-wooded areas, such as overgrown clearings, forest edge, and river islands, along the eastern base of the Andes. Mostly gray and olive with a yellow belly and white wingbars. Spiky white crest is frequently held erect, and is bordered by dark forehead tufts that can look like little horns. Usually found hawking insects from a conspicuous perch, and gives short, burry calls.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Elaenia gigas
- Authority
- Sclater, PL, 1871
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Tyrannidae
- Genus
- Elaenia
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- rising
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds

Short-billed Canastero
Asthenes baeri
Medium-sized, rather nondescript bird, plain dull brown with a tail that is usually held cocked. Note the orange throat patch. Inhabits arid areas with scrub and woodlands, where it forages both in trees and on the ground. The song is a high nasal trill. The similar Sharp-billed Canastero has a longer bill and tail and an indistinct eyebrow.

White-throated Fantail
Rhipidura albicollis
A distinctive fantail, all dark except for a white throat and a short white eyebrow. The tail, often fanned, is a shade darker with white tips to all tail feathers except the central pair. Juvenile is like adult, but with reduced white on face and brownish edges to the dark body feathers. Gives very harsh contact calls. Song is a musical phrase of 6-7 notes that ascends first and then descends. Found in a wide range of wooded habitats, from dense forest to forest edge and gardens, from lowlands up into the mountains.

Sula Hanging-Parrot
Loriculus sclateri
A tiny stub-tailed green parrot with a golden-bronze back, a narrow red throat, a bright red rump, and a small red shoulder patch. Juveniles are duller and more poorly marked. Singles or small groups occur within treetops of forest and nearby secondary growth areas in the lowlands. No other tiny green, short-tailed parrot occurs within its limited range in the Sula and Banggai islands. Very high-pitched calls include “zeet-weet-wit,” rising in pitch at the end. Sometimes birds only utter the first two notes or single “zeet” notes.
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