Zappey's Flycatcher
Cyanoptila cumatilis
Very similar to Blue-and-white Flycatcher (breeding grounds do not overlap). Females and juveniles are essentially unidentifiable while on migration unless seen with an adult male, which is radiant, electric blue above and white below, lacking the contrasting black throat and breast of Blue-and-white, instead transitioning more smoothly from blue to white. Pale gray smudging on the flanks, while more difficult to see, can also serve to differentiate the two. Song is a thrush-like series of bright, slightly slurred warbles and whistles. Breeds in submontane mixed forests in northern China; wintering grounds little-known, but presumably at a similar altitudinal range in evergreen forests.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Cyanoptila cumatilis
- Authority
- Thayer & Bangs, 1909
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Muscicapidae
- Genus
- Cyanoptila
Range and habitat
- Breeding range
- PAL : c, ec China
- Non-breeding range
- to Malay Pen., Sumatra and Java
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Olive Bee-eater
Merops superciliosus
Large green bee-eater with a rufous throat patch. Found in almost any open habitat, including savannah, cultivation, scrub, and grassland. Often perches up conspicuously, singly or in small groups. Feeds on insects on the wing, and often seen in flight, sometimes in loose flocks. Incessantly gives a soft rolling “krrrio” call, especially in flight. Similar in shape and size to European and Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters. Has a very different color scheme from European Bee-eater, and a subtly different one from Blue-cheeked: green underparts, bright white stripes on the cheek, and a brownish crown.
North Moluccan Pitta
Erythropitta rufiventris
A distinctive plump, short-tailed, long-legged terrestrial forest bird with a conspicuous red belly and a broad band of electric blue above that. Head brown and body green. Forages on the ground in humid lowland and hill forest and also in neighboring secondary growth. Calls both from the forest floor and from low perches in the understory. Gives a soft two-note whistle with a quivering, longer first note: “whoooyoop-woo.”
Puna Tapaculo
Scytalopus simonsi
Tiny, plump gray-and-brown bird that looks almost tailless. Males are ashy gray with warm reddish brown on their back half; females are similar, with the warm reddish brown extending farther up the back to the crown. Forages singly or in pairs low in dense vegetation in stunted elfin forest and humid shrubby grassland at high elevations, at and above the treeline; often found in Polylepis groves. A bit less shy than most tapaculos, but still heard far more often than seen. Its song is a single squeaky “tcheur” note, repeated at a steady pace of about 1-2 notes per second in a long series.
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