Pallas's Rosefinch

Small, skulking wren of vine tangles and thickets in tropical lowlands. Like most wrens, heard far more often than seen. Rollicking, ‘happy,’ whistled song is a duet between male and female, keeping them in touch with each other. Rising call note sounds like a finger run along a comb. Plumage is rich rusty brown overall, with white eyebrow and dense black spotting on whitish breast.

The equivalent of House Sparrow in dry parts of the Horn of Africa. Males have a chestnut crown and nape, a black bib, and a variable pale yellowish wash on the cheeks and underparts. Females are very dull, but usually also show a yellow wash below. Found in dry habitats including dry thorn savanna, thorn scrub, desert, and coastal cliffs, often around human habitation. Visually similar to House Sparrow, but separated by the yellow wash, and the male is further separated by the chestnut rather than gray crown. Also similar to rufous sparrows, but the male is separated from those species by his chestnut crown, and the female by her much drabber coloration. The call is a “cheep” very similar to that of House Sparrow. 

Tiny rotund, short-tailed bird, scarcely larger than a sparrow; like a diminutive partridge or quail but only distantly related. Brown with scaly streaking above, extensive black barring on the chest (more extensive on the female), and rich tawny flanks. Extremely difficult to detect, moving about invisibly in dense weedy vegetation in fields, forest edges, and farmland. Flying birds have whirring flight, show contrast between dark flight feathers and paler coverts. Courting females give sonorous, booming calls from dense vegetation.