Venezuelan Flowerpiercer

A grayish bushshrike with green wings and tail and a unique head pattern: the black mask curls down to form a narrow black breast band surrounding the white throat. Some morphs have a purple dot at the base of the throat. Juvenile has less distinct face pattern than adult. A rare resident, restricted to a handful of sites in the Cameroon-Nigeria highlands, where it is found singly and in pairs in the canopy of primary hill forest between 930 and 1550 meters of elevation. Calls include an electric grating “cha-cha-cha-chggrrt-chggrrt-chggrrt” like a laser-gun sound effect in a computer game, as well as harsh croaking, whistles, and ticks. May snap wings when agitated. 

Medium-sized songbird of woodlands, neighborhoods, and parks. Male grayish brown with black head and wings, faintly orange flanks, and a dark-tipped yellow bill. Female similar but lacks the black head, has much paler orange on the flanks, and is an overall brownish tone. Male similar to Japanese Grosbeak, which has less black on the head, no orange on the flanks, and lacks the dark tip to the bill of most adult male Yellow-billed Grosbeaks. Often detected as it gives a hard "jik!" while flying overhead.

A gregarious small seed-eating bird of pine forests and forest openings that also visits agricultural areas near dry scrubby forests. The male is unique in appearance with green upperparts, yellow underparts, a black head, and a thick pale bill. Females of this species resemble female and nonbreeding Village Weavers, but the Village Weavers are substantially larger, have a distinct pale eyebrow, a dark bill and pink legs. Calls include a “jut-jut,” a shrill and buzzy “zzhhreeeee,” and a buzzy insect-like “zzzzzzzzzt” that is upward inflected.