Ocellated Tapaculo

A medium-sized cuckoo, with a warm buff colored throat, chest, and belly. Gray eyering and heavily barred tail. Similar to Plaintive Cuckoo, which is paler with a contrasting gray hood and buffy belly. Found in a variety of wooded habitats throughout Sulawesi. Most frequently encountered by its incessantly given song, a series of high-pitched overslurred piping notes.

A small, compact finch-like sociable lark that is both resident and nomadic, although movements are poorly understood. The sexes differ in plumage: the distinctive male has a rich chestnut back and wings and a black head with bold white circular ear-patches; the streaky female is variable depending on geographic range, but always has a dark belly patch. Flocks of up to 50 birds (often mixed with Chestnut-headed Sparrow-Lark in NE Africa) can appear in open grassland and arid savanna, preferring recently burned turf, open fields, and gravel plains. They shuffle along in bare patches foraging for seeds and insects.

A medium-sized bird of lowland and foothill forest. Forages on the ground. Ashy-gray above with black-and-white bars in the wing and the face. Underparts white, with black spots concentrated in the chest. Similar to White’s and Sunda Thrushes, but smaller, with spots rather than scales below and an obvious black vertical bar through the eye. Song is a simple medium-pitched whistled melody. Also gives harsh grating calls.