Philippine Shortwing
Brachypteryx poliogyna
A small, dark songster of montane rainforest floor and undergrowth in the Philippines. Male is overall dark, blue-gray with an indistinct, often concealed white eyebrow. Female has a dark gray body with a paler belly, and brown head and base to the undertail. Forages on the ground of various types of forest, including bamboo, fern, and mossy forest. Song is an up-and-down melody of long whistles, broken into short separate notes. Call, a repeated, soft double-note “biirrick!”
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Brachypteryx poliogyna
- Authority
- Ogilvie-Grant, 1895
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Muscicapidae
- Genus
- Brachypteryx
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Crissal Thrasher
Toxostoma crissale
Dark grayish thrasher with distinctive rufous undertail coverts. Bill long and strongly curved. Tail long and dark. Obvious dark line separating white mustache and white throat. Yellow eye. Secretive and uncommon, although perches conspicuously when singing. Found in brushy deserts. With a good view, easily distinguished from more common Curve-billed Thrasher by darker gray color and rufous undertail coverts. Listen for jumbled, rambling song.
Slaty-capped Flycatcher
Leptopogon superciliaris
Small flycatcher with gray cap, black ear patch, and buffy wingbars. Head pattern looks messy. Olive back and pale yellow belly. Most similar to Sepia-capped Flycatcher, but that species has a brown cap (not gray). Also very similar to bristle-tyrants of South America but note buffy wingbars and voice—a commonly heard, explosive “pseek!” sometimes with a sputtering trill at the end. Look for singles or pairs in forests and edges, usually not too high in the trees. Often follows mixed-species flocks.
Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker
Yungipicus maculatus
A small woodpecker of foothill and low-elevation montane forest and more open wooded areas. White, speckled underparts reach a dotted moustache stripe on the face. Dark brown upperparts are cut by white barring on the back and white bands on the head. Male has a red mark on the back of the head. Unmistakable. No other woodpecker of a similar size occurs in its range. Voice includes a short, slightly metallic rattling trill.
Start Your Bird Watching Journey
Identify a bird outdoors and keep the field guide close for your next observation.