Small Sparrowhawk
Tachyspiza nanus
A small, compact hawk with yellow eyes, a lime-green bill base, and yellow legs. Adult is slate-gray with a vinous breast and whitish belly and thighs. Immatures are unbarred rufous above with boldly streaked pale underparts. Doesn’t soar. Mostly found in hill and montane forest, occasionally lowlands. Confined to Sulawesi. Slightly smaller, shorter-tailed, smaller-billed, and shorter-toed than Vinous-breasted Sparrowhawk, but best separated by voice. Pale eyes distinguish it from Spot-tailed Goshawk and Chinese and Japanese Sparrowhawks. Unbarred thighs and extensive white underwings in flight separate it from adult Japanese Sparrowhawk. Absence of tail spots rules out Spot-tailed Goshawk. Gives a “kew-kew-ke-ke-ke-ke” call, higher-pitched than Vinous-breasted Sparowhawk’s.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Tachyspiza nanus
- Authority
- (Blasius, W, 1897)
- Order
- Accipitriformes
- Family
- Accipitridae
- Genus
- Tachyspiza
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Other Birds
African Bare-eyed Thrush
Turdus tephronotus
A distinctive and attractive thrush of dry country, patterned in gray, rufous, and white. Note the orange bill and bare skin around the eye, and the white throat with black striping. Found in the thick undergrowth of a variety of habitats, including dry thorn savanna, scrub, and woodland. Fairly shy and retiring. There is only minor overlap in range with similar thrushes, such as African Thrush and Kurrichane Thrush, and in those areas, African Bare-eyed Thrush is easily identified by the bare skin around the eye. One common call is a short, low-pitched trill, and the song is a low-pitched combination of chatty whistles and trills, with frequent pauses.
Russet-tailed Thrush
Zoothera heinei
Large thrush, adult rich brown marbled with dark marks above, pale with black scaly marks below. Larger Bassian Thrush has smaller-appearing bill, is more contrastingly marked above. In flight, Russet-tailed shows white in tail corners, absent in Bassian. The smaller wingbar has more prominent pale tips in adult Russet-tailed than Bassian. Inhabits wet forests, where it forages in leaf litter. Song a distinctive, thin “whee-doo,” falling in pitch, very unlike Bassian.
Hoary-headed Grebe
Poliocephalus poliocephalus
Small ducklike bird that rides low in the water. In breeding plumage note distinctive streaked head and pale neck. In non-breeding plumage it is much paler, with the dark cap extending to just below the eye (compare with Australasian Grebe). Can form very large flocks; typically found on ponds and lakes, including estuaries.
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