Blue-headed Fantail

A typical harrier, with long slender wings and tail and graceful swooping flight. Male has pale gray panels in the wings, while female is browner and more uniform. Found mainly in open habitats, including marsh and montane grassland. Occasionally seen flying over forest. Spends long periods on the wing and is rarely seen perched. Most often confused with Black Kite, but has longer wings, a longer, narrower, and un-forked tail, a white rump, and pale underparts. Coloration overall similar to other raptors like Madagascar Buzzard, but lanky harrier shape is distinctive.

Medium-sized flycatcher of middle- and high-elevation scrub and open woodlands. Perches upright in bushes and trees, sallying out to catch insects on the wing. Males are black with a conspicuous white wing flash in flight created by white inner edges of the wing feathers; females are tan with white wingbars and reddish patches at the base of the tail and in the wings. Males are darker black and more iridescent than other black-tyrants. White wingbars and dark eye of female help distinguish it from similar species; it is lighter with a more prominent reddish rump patch than Jelski’s Black-Tyrant.

Supreme understory skulker in montane forest, resembling a hybrid between a thrush and babbler. A dull but distinctive-looking bird if seen well, with brown-olive upperparts and rusty underparts, a bold dull blue-gray eye-ring and black-speckled tawny throat. The bill is dark on top and pale underneath. Immature is paler, lacking the spotted throat. Singles or pairs are highly localized residents flicking through leaf litter or following ants in undergrowth of Eastern Arc montane forest, between 900–2700m; shy and hops or runs quickly across the forest-floor, seldom permitting absorbing looks. Thrush-like song is a varied but distinctive shrill series of whistles and slurs. Calls include a single upslurred sweet “seeuuuiit”, and a scratchy “werrrt” in alarm.