Black-billed Weaver

An impressive long-tailed bird of wooded habitats including shade coffee plantations. Usually found in dense vegetation though sometimes found sunning in the open at first light with its tail spread. Note this species long straight narrow bill, brilliant red eyering, gray chest, and chestnut belly. The Mangrove Cuckoo is passingly similar but has a much shorter bill, a black mask, and lacks the red eyering visible on Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo. Secretive, but not shy, this species is often first detected by its voice. Song is a long, rapid, ratcheting “keh-keh-keh…” series that often accelerates and/or decelerates throughout. Other calls include a harsh, “craaa.”

A fairly common cloud forest tapaculo found in the eastern Andes of northern and central Peru. Adult is gray with brown bars on the lower underparts. Young birds are browner and extensively marked with buff bars and scales. Similar to Trilling Tapaculo and Junin Tapaculo, and identification should be based on range and voice. Rufous-vented Tapaculo gives sharp chips and low frog-like notes, either alone or in an accelerating series. Inhabits forest understory and usually tough to see.

Small, slender, blank-faced sparrow. Can be either gray or buffy overall, but always note small pink bill, plain face, and thin white eyering. Inhabits overgrown fields and other brushy areas in eastern North America. Often joins flocks of sparrows in winter. Can visit feeders, but less frequently than Chipping or American Tree sparrows. Song is a series of bell-like notes, accelerating like a dropped ping-pong ball.