Chinese Barbet

A small, pudgy, blackish waterbird with reddish eyes, a yellowish bill, and diagnostic pink-red legs. The immature is browner, with duller legs and bill. It scuttles along the edges of swamps and other water bodies, preferring reedbeds and emergent vegetation to forage on, sometimes quite boldly. Like most crakes, it walks tentatively with its head lowered, picking and probing for insects, plant matter, and other food. The distinctive call is an odd, wheezy bubbling and chattering “cheeew-t-t-t-t treeew, t-t-t-t-t-treew”.

Partridgelike bird. Male unmistakable, with conspicuous white spots and streaks covering body. Also note the bright red bill, facial skin, and legs. Female plain reddish-brown, lacking the white markings of the male. Female told from larger female Sri Lanka Junglefowl by the spurfowl’s uniform coloration with complete absence of any prominent bars or streaking. Terrestrial forest bird that occurs in pairs, within the lowlands and hills predominantly in the Wet Zone, but also very locally in the Dry Zone. Rollicking call includes a rising, piping “ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-chikew…”.

Chunky sparrow with gray body, green back, and black stripes on head. Told apart from other sparrows and brush-finches by head pattern. Sexes alike. Found singly or in pairs in tangles and thickets, usually at forest edge or in shrubby second growth. Listen for loud sweet calls and accelerating song.