Sunda Scops-Owl

A tiny, long-billed bird of forest understory. Brown above and white below with a black crescent across the chest. Note striking facial pattern with white eyebrow and black malar mark. General impression is wren-like with long bill, contrasting eyebrow, and tail usually held cocked. Difficult to see well, as it tends to remain in dense understory growth around treefalls and other gaps in tall rainforest, where it is locally distributed and never common. Usually seen alone or in pairs. Song is a long, descending whistle, repeated at roughly three-second intervals, very similar in tone and pace to second note of Tawny-crowned Greenlet’s song. Harsh scolding note is perhaps the best giveaway to this species’s presence. Generally unmistakable given a decent view; in silhouette could be confused with Long-billed Gnatwren but has much stronger face pattern and is usually confined to dense undergrowth rather than the vine tangles inhabited by Long-billed.

Medium-sized antshrike with a rather small head, a short robust bill, and a long tail. Males are black with white spots and an entirely black tail while females are black with cinnamon spots and barring throughout. Mostly seen in pairs in the dense understory of humid forests closer to bamboo, can be active but hard to see. The song is a loud and clear series of ascending and descending notes.

A medium-sized “fly-catching” species of open woodlands and scrub including towns, preferring areas near palms; often sits still on perch for long periods of time before leaping forth in pursuit of insects. Grenada Flycatcher has a dull brown back and a yellow belly that contrasts with its gray chest and throat. The Caribbean Elaenia is passingly similar but is smaller with a proportionately small bill, and it has bold wingbars and dull, low-contrast underparts. Vocalizations include an emphatic low “whip” given in a slow series and sometimes followed by a rolling “pit-it-oooo.” Also, this species gives a shrill “whee,” singly or in series.