Sooty Honeyeater

A cute, dumpy, colorful flycatcher-like bird that flits around in the mid-canopy and understory of forest, forest edge, plantations, and gardens. Males have a broad black chest band, yellow-orange eye, white stripe through the top of the wing, and white throat. Females have an orange eye, buff-and-white stripe through the top of the wing, and rufous chin patch. The song is a series of 8-9 plaintive steady piping “peooop” notes, and calls include buzzing grating “ddrz-drrzt-drrr, ddt-ddzt-drzt-drr”. Female Dark Batis is distinguished by its darker (rich rufous rather than white and buff) wing stripe. Male Dark Batis is very similar, but has a slightly longer tail and broader black breast stripe. Also similar to Chinspot Batis, but has darker orange color to the eyes, and female Malawi Batis shows paler rufous on the throat and buff tinges to the wing stripe.

A large lark with a long, strong bill and a long tail. Back is scaly-looking and underparts pale, with a black mark on the side of the breast. The wings show rufous in flight. Found locally in dry and open savanna. Similar to Red-winged Lark, from which it was recently split, but does not overlap in range. The song is a variable but repetitive mix of whistled notes and imitations of other species, usually given from the top of a bush, but sometimes in flight.

Rare bird of stunted treeline forest in the high Andes of Ecuador and southern Colombia. Mostly gray with a chestnut belly; male has a black cap. Usually seen perched atop a tree or tall bush, and perhaps more likely to be encountered early in the morning on dry days. Call is a raspy, nasal “greh!”