Spotted Flycatcher
Muscicapa striata
Drab brown songbird with a streaky white breast. Also note streaking on crown. Tends to perch rather upright on exposed snags and other perches, often sallying out to snatch insects and returning to the same perch (“flycatching”). Favors open mixed and deciduous woodland with clearings, as well as scrub, parkland, larger gardens, and plantations. Song is composed of high-pitched squeaky single or double notes, often with a trilled quality. Calls include high-pitched “tseet” and descending “djeer” notes.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Muscicapa striata
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Muscicapidae
- Genus
- Muscicapa
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Amur Falcon
Falco amurensis
The male of this small falcon is sooty gray with rufous-orange thighs and vent. The females are duller gray above, and their white underparts are well marked with dark chevrons. The combination of reddish-orange eyering, cere, and feet distinguishes them from all other falcons. These champion migrants breed in eastern Siberia and winter in southern Africa, often congregating in huge roosts on passage through India. They feed mainly on insects that they either catch on the wing or pick from the ground.
Chinstrap Penguin
Pygoscelis antarcticus
Classy-looking medium-sized penguin. Slender “chinstrap” is unique and unmistakable, but can be difficult to see at a distance; instead, note this species’ white face, dark bill, and cleanly flat-bottomed dark cap. Breeds in colonies on rocky terrain in the Subantarctic, particularly in the southern Atlantic. Winters as far north as far southern Argentina. Gives loud, hoarse barking and braying calls on the breeding grounds.
Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse
Pterocles lichtensteinii
Small, shy sandgrouse of harsh deserts. Beautifully patterned all over with fine black stripes. Male has black-and-white forehead pattern and broad sandy and black horizontal bars across his breast. Both sexes have a pale yellowish eyering. Rather compact with a short rear. Inhabits stony, mountainous deserts. Unlike most other sandgrouse, drinks at dusk. In flight utters odd, urgent squeaks.
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