Scarlet-bellied Mountain Tanager

This relatively short-tailed paradise-flycatcher is often found near forest edges and around villages and towns in gardens. Both sexes have gray heads and undersides with blue bills and blue eye-rings, as well as a red back, red wings, red tail, and most importantly, a red vent. Males are similar to females but have longer central tail feathers and darker glossy black heads. Similar to Bates’s Paradise-Flycatcher, but Rufous-vented Paradise-Flycatcher males have longer central tail feathers and darker heads with a more prominent crest. Some individuals are best left unidentified. Songs are similar to those of other paradise-flycatchers, consisting of repeated, whiny whistles “two-two-TEE-TEE-two-two-ter” or clearer “tweer-tweer-tweer” sounds, with variations in pitch and number of notes. Calls include whiny, rasping “heh” notes as well as other chatters and dry trills.

The pale button eyes of this gull give it a somewhat fearsome appearance. Breeding adult’s head is the color of milk chocolate, lightening towards the bill. Non-breeding and first-winter birds have a dark ear patch and faint traces of the dark hood. All plumages may be confused with smaller Black-headed Gull, but note pale eyes and more extensive black on the primaries in all plumages. Breeds on high-altitude lakes on the Tibetan Plateau and winters on marshes, estuaries, lakes and rivers, most often in coastal areas.

Tiny hummingbird with a very short tail found in arid scrub and desert in western Ecuador and northwestern Peru. Male has glittering violet “beard” that is bordered by white above and below. Female lacks throat patch and has a buffy tinge to underparts, faint facial stripes, and a white tip to the tail. Female is told from other similar species in range by very short tail that does not reach wingtips when perched and white tip of tail (not white edges or corners).