Beautiful Jay
Cyanolyca pulchra
Blue and gray jay with a black mask and white crown. It’s restricted to Andean cloud forest in northwestern Ecuador and western Colombia. Similar to both Turquoise and Black-collared Jays, but lacks the black breast band and has a dark gray back and breast. Noisy groups roam widely through the forest, giving a fun variety of strange calls, some of which sound like they came straight from an 80’s arcade game.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Cyanolyca pulchra
- Authority
- (Lawrence, 1876)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Corvidae
- Genus
- Cyanolyca
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds

Canary Islands Chaffinch
Fringilla canariensis
Dapper little finch endemic to the Canarias, where it inhabits a range of habitats, from forests to farmlands. Handsome, brightly colored male has a blue-grayish cowl, pale orangish face and breast, and a black-and-white wing pattern (colors muted in winter). Female much drabber but shares male pattern; especially note the complex wing pattern. Both sexes have white outer tail feathers, often striking in flight such as when flushed. Song is a somewhat buzzy series of up-and-down notes; calls include a somewhat sparrow-like “dwee!”

Southern Cassowary
Casuarius casuarius
Enormous flightless bird with dark glossy plumage and large, horn-like plate on colorful head with two red neck wattles. Unlikely to be confused with other species. Hatchlings are brown and strongly striped. Juvenile and Immature birds are similar to adults but browner and with an absent or developing head-plate. Found in dense tropical rainforest, where it can be seen crossing roads, or along roadsides.

Bluish-slate Antshrike
Thamnomanes schistogynus
Medium-sized, fairly long-tailed antshrike of lowland rainforest. Perches upright in the under and midstory of mature rainforest, bamboo, and occasionally forest edges. The male is slaty gray overall while the more distinctive female has a red-orange belly. Often joins mixed-species flocks, where it typically forages slightly higher in vegetation than the similar Dusky-throated Antshrike. Males are best separated from other plain gray antshrikes by more upright posture, slightly longer tail, cleaner gray throat, and voice. Listen for a short series of rising whistles that accelerate into a trill.
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