Malayan Black-capped Babbler

Spectacular, large vireo of highland forests, especially pine-oak. Like most vireos, rather sluggish and easily overlooked. Best detected by song: a loud, hawklike whistle, often repeated steadily. Usually found as singles or in pairs, at middle to upper levels in forest canopy, but also low in brushy thickets; often travels with mixed-species flocks of warblers, orioles, and tanagers. Note the bold face pattern and staring pale eyes; male is more brightly marked, with deep rusty breast band while female breast band is weak and washed out.

This typical “Scytalopus” tapaculo is found only in Colombia’s western Andes. Plumage is gray with a brown tinge to the rump and faint, rusty barring on the lower underparts. Similar to Nariño Tapaculo, Spillmann’s Tapaculo, and Choco Tapaculo, and is best identified by its distinctive voice. Song is a long, pulsating series of frog-like calls that gradually increases in volume and pitch. Inhabits understory of cloud forest and is normally quite hard to see.

A small, mostly grass-green bee-eater with a canary-yellow throat separated from buff underparts by a black line across the throat. Singles and pairs occupy grassy savanna and wetland edges. They often perch lower than 1.5 m above the ground, and dart around hunting flying insects, then returning to the same small twig. Calls include a sibilant “s-lip” and other high-pitched notes. The Blue-breasted Bee-eater is slightly larger and has a white patch on the cheek. The much larger Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater has burnt orange underparts, and it prefers highland forest above 1800 m.