Rufous-tailed Tailorbird

Stocky and large-headed with a shaggy crest. Bill is long, straight, thick, and pointed. Powder blue above with white underparts and blue breast band. Females have additional rusty band across belly. Almost always solitary, perched along edges of streams, lakes, and estuaries. Flies along rivers and shorelines giving loud rattling calls. Hunts for fish by plunging headfirst into the water, either directly from a perch or hovering.

Small, mouse-like bird found at very high elevations in the Andes. Inhabits scrub and edge of elfin forest. Male is mostly dark gray; female has brown upperparts and gray underparts. Both sexes have very faint barring on lower underparts. Similar to several other species of tapaculos, and best identified by range, elevation, habitat, and voice. Song is a dry, cicada-like rattle that usually lasts two to six seconds, and then repeated again after a pause. Skulks in dense vegetation, usually close to the ground.

A graceful aerial feeder found over a wide variety of open habitats, especially near water, including marshes and towns. Often seen on exposed perches including power and telephone lines in villages. Commonly found in flocks of up to twenty birds, sometimes mixing with other swallows and martins. Note the male’s diagnostic glossy purple-blue plumage and snow-white belly. Females and immatures are similarly patterned, but have brown mixed with the blue and are probably not safely separable from Cuban Martin. Female and immature Purple Martins are very similar, but they often have a scaly breast and finely streaked belly, with less contrast between belly and chest. Notably, Cuban and Purple Martins are not present in this species’ range from March to September. Calls include a harsh “churr,” a buzzy “zwick-zwick,” and a musical buzzy burbling.