Black-headed Tanager

Stilpnia cyanoptera

Small bird of foothill forests. Males have a pale buffy body with black head, wings, and tail; females are much more drab, with a grayish-green head, pale bluish-green back, and yellowish underparts. In good light, both sexes show blue in flight feathers. Found in foothill forests and edge habitats, dry valleys, and in humid forest around the bases of the tepuis. Usually observed at fruiting trees, often in pairs or small family groups, from lower levels into canopy. Calls are indistinct chips and twitters. Plumage pattern of male is distinctive; females are more confusing but are seldom seen without males, facilitating identification; note contrasting gray head and (at close range) blue in wings.

Taxonomy

Scientific name
Stilpnia cyanoptera
Authority
(Swainson, 1834)
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Thraupidae
Genus
Stilpnia

Range and habitat

Migration
Resident species

Conservation

Population trend
declining

Photos

Distribution

Bird Calls

Other Birds

Purple Sandpiper

Purple Sandpiper

Calidris maritima

Plump, rock-loving shorebird with slightly droopy bill. Most often seen in nonbreeding plumage, which is fairly dark gray with spotted underparts. Namesake purple sheen (mostly on back, scapulars, and tertials) only visible at close distance in good light. Legs and base of bill usually bright orange. Messy-looking breeding plumage is darker and more heavily marked, with limited rusty tones on upperparts. Largely inaccessible breeding range on high Arctic tundra; most often seen in northern Europe, Spitsbergen, and Iceland. Winters at slightly lower latitudes, regularly south to the mid-Atlantic region in North America and the Iberian Peninsula in Europe; found in flocks on rocky coastlines and jetties pounded by heavy surf.

Asian Openbill

Asian Openbill

Anastomus oscitans

A relatively small stork species with a grayish to white body and black wings and tail with a hint of gloss. The Asian Openbill gets its name from a distinctive gap in the dull grayish yellow bill. Note the pinkish legs. Asian Openbills inhabit wetland habitats including shallow marshes, flooded agricultural fields, and lakes. From a distance they could be confused with herons, but they can be clearly distinguished from herons by their feeding habits—wading slowly through shallow water. Soars frequently, often in large dense flocks; note extended neck, unlike retracted neck of herons and egrets.

White-winged Cinclodes

White-winged Cinclodes

Cinclodes atacamensis

Uncommon to fairly common in the high Andes, where usually outnumbered by similar but smaller Cream-winged Cinclodes. Favors streams and bogs with running water and also lakeshores. Generally less confiding than Cream-winged Cinclodes. Told from Cream-winged by brighter, rustier back and more contrasting white markings with broader wing stripe and big white tail corners as opposed to smaller buff tail corners on Cream-winged. Voice also quite different.

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