Jerdon's Minivet

Brightly-colored adult male is unmistakable in range: blazing sapphire blue with orange flanks and white throat and belly. Female is brown with a white throat, orange flanks, and pale blue rump and tail. Red-flanked Bluetail can be confusing where the two overlap in the latter’s migratory and winter range; note Himalayan’s brighter blue eyebrow and brighter, deeper blue upperparts in the male. Female is slightly more grayish than Red-flanked, but this identification can be much more difficult, and females may not be safely separable if not with male. Himalayan’s song is a simple, repeated “tcher-thcew-wee!”. Breeds in submontane forest up to the treeline; descends in the winter, often moving into edge habitats. A frequent sight along forest tracks.

Striking tanager of open woodland, consisting of two relatively distinctive subspecies. Distinguished from other warbling-finches in range by its black breast band. Nominate torquatus is a resident of the southern Bolivian Andes, especially open scrub and cactus forest of the dry valleys. Migratory pectoralis shows a thicker breast band and darker undertail coverts, and breeds in the Pampas, Monte, and northern Chaco dry forests in north central Argentina, dispersing north to lowlands of W Paraguay and SE Bolivia.

Dumpy with a short tail. Breeding males are yellow apart from black throats, cheeks, belly, and wings. The female and nonbreeding male are similar; streaky and sparrowlike with a white eyebrow and throat. Found in wet areas with tall grass. Native to sub-Saharan Africa, now established in Iberia, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Gives dry, buzzing calls and a high-pitched “ts’ee”; breeding males also give an odd hissing song.