Bare-eyed Rail

A large, slender, long-tailed gray chat with bold white outer tail feathers that frame the black tail. South African races are slaty gray with grayish rumps, while Namibian races are smaller and paler with whitish rumps. This is a bold chat that perches conspicuously on fences and shrubs throughout arid rangelands, dropping to the ground to forage before flying strongly and occasionally distantly to another perch, showing the diagnostic tail pattern. The Tractrac Chat is shorter-tailed, prefers hyper-arid barren environments, and has a distinctive V-shaped black wedge in the tail that the Karoo Chat lacks.

A small, brightly colored shrike of forest edges and lightly forested fields and gardens. Adult male has pale-bordered black mask, mostly gray back and wings, blackish tail, and warm orange crown, nape, and wash on sides (worn birds less brightly colored). Female has brown back, less obvious mask, rusty crown and nape, and light barring below. Juvenile similar to adult female but lacks pale border around mask. Compared to juvenile Brown Shrike, Bull-headed has warmer orange tones, larger bill, and weaker mask. Song a harsh, raspy collection of notes (including imitations); call is a staccato chatter.

Medium-sized gray bird (small for a cuckooshrike) with considerable geographic variation. Male averages darkest on the wings, throat, and breast, contrasting more heavily with the rest of the plumage than in the fairly uniform-looking male Indochinese Cuckooshrike. Female is pale gray with fine barring on the underparts. Undertail is black with white-tipped feathers concentrated at the end of the tail; does not appear as evenly graduated as in the larger Black-winged Cuckooshrike, and is less extensively white-tailed than Indochinese Cuckooshrike. Forages in the upper levels of forests and forest edge in lowland and hilly areas, often as part of mixed-species flocks. Song begins with a few clear tinkling notes, then transitions into a loud, insistent “jeh, jeh, jeh, jeh”.