Santa Marta Tapaculo

Small yellowish finch with prominent wingbars. Male is attractive and distinctive, with a yellow face and breast offset by a black cap and small chin patch. Female streaky overall, often with yellowish tones; note especially the yellow wing and tail flashes of both sexes. Inhabits mixed and coniferous woodland and forest; also found in parks and gardens, and visits seed feeders. Often in flocks, mainly in the autumn and winter, gathering at good food sources. Listen for twittering, buzzing vocalizations, including nasal, rising “tuohweee” and dry chittering.

Long-legged medium-sized raptor with long narrow wings. Adult has varied plumage, but note diagnostic prominent white rump. Juvenile is darker below. Flies slowly and low over open habitats with wings held in shallow V shape. Breeds in reed-beds, and occurs mainly in swamps and wetlands.

A medium-sized, brown eagle with yellow eyes, a large angular head, pale legs, and a brown-and-white-banded tail. In flight, the brown-and-silver underwing pattern is distinctive. It is sedentary and nomadic in savanna, plains, and semi-desert, where it mostly hunts snakes from perches, but it also eats other vertebrates. Immatures could be confused with immature Black-breasted Snake-Eagles, but the latter are rufous--not brown--and have a different underwing pattern.