Brown Eared-Pheasant

Small plain bird with thin bill. Upperparts greenish brown, underparts mostly off-white, with gray crown, sharply contrasting white throat. Inhabits variety of tropical habitats, usually near water. Forages unobtrusively in mid-canopy. Calls sound more urgent than those of other gerygones.

In typical woodcreeper fashion, this bird is mostly warm brown with streaks on the head and breast. Look for the notably long, extremely decurved bill. This species is easy to identify when it is the only scythebill in range, but in South America it overlaps with other scythebill species. Voice can be a good clue (Brown-billed usually stutters in its whistled series), and bill color can sometimes be helpful but often difficult to judge. Hitches up tree trunks much like a woodpecker. Most often seen following a mixed-species flock in the forest, sometimes in adjacent second growth.

Typical active white-eye, often found in mixed flocks. Note this species’s broad white eyering, as well as its smoky-black forehead and lores (despite name, doesn’t have much of a black cap). A common species in hill and montane forests, up into scrubby, stunted vegetation around and above the treeline. Song is a dry-sounding series of disjointed strophes, usually incorporating a hard “ti-tick”. Gives high-pitched nasal whistles, as well as chittering “chik”s and “chi-chick”s.