Sao Tome Spinetail

This unmistakable warblerlike bird is fairly common in forests and edges from Panama to Colombia and Venezuela. Males are pale pearly-gray below and richer blue-gray above with a dark cap, a white cheek, and chestnut undertail coverts. Females are grayish above and pale grayish-buff below. Note the sharply pointed bill. Almost always found in pairs, usually in the canopy of forests and edges in lowlands, up to around 800 m. Sometimes joins mixed-species flocks.

Slender and streaked pipit. Feeds on the ground like other pipits, but perches readily in trees or bushes when singing, or alights in tree at end of parachuting song flight. As the name suggests, usually associated with trees (on breeding grounds), but also found in agricultural areas and grassy scrub in winter. All pipits look rather similar and are best identified to species by combination of habitat and voice: Tree Pipit call a high, shrill, buzzy "tzzz"; song more melodic and varied than Meadow Pipit song. ​

Chunky, short-legged heron. All white with a black-tipped blue bill and bright red legs in breeding plumage. Dark brown with white wings and belly in non-breeding plumage. Found in a variety of freshwater wetlands, though generally rare. Distinctive in breeding plumage, but easily confused with Squacco Heron in non-breeding plumage, when Malagasy Pond-Heron can be carefully distinguished by the much darker brown color on most of the body, which contrasts sharply with the white belly and wing.