Marsh Seedeater

A dull, short-tailed brownish forest-floor skulker, cold above and warmer below. Has a very thin beak, and long legs and big feet that it lifts in a “goosestep” fashion. This taxonomic enigma is now considered an aberrant dwarf forest wagtail, although it looks more like a terrestrial warbler. Endemic to São Tomé, where it is scarce in interior forests up to 1540 meters of elevation, preferring margins of small rivers, often with logs and debris. Found singly or in pairs. Calls include a thin, high-pitched “seeeep” whistle. 

A small though long-tailed hornbill that is frequently encountered as it flies singly or in groups over the canopy, between forest gaps, and over road cuts. Distinctive, with a bright white belly and a black head, body, wings, and tail, giving it a bicolored appearance. Similar to Congo Pied Hornbill, but usually separated by range, and the tail has white corners (rather than edges), and the bill is pale yellow with a black (rather than red) tip. Calls are a series of high-pitched whistles: “heu heu heu heu.”

Elusive pheasant-like ground-dwelling bird, remarkably attractive when seen in good light: bluish gray above, pale gray below, with red bill and legs, pale eye surrounded by blue skin, dark hood and long tail that both show blue and violet tones. Forages on or close to the ground in dense cover of lowland and foothill forests, where it can be difficult to see despite its size. Male gives a haunting call, a long, sonorous whistle that rises at the middle and falls off toward the end.