Long-tailed Silky-flycatcher

Large and social starling of fields, parks, and farmland. Adult’s contrastingly and sharply demarcated white head in both sexes is unique amongst the region's starlings. Females are duller than males, but both have gray bodies and dark wings with a white patch. Juveniles are brown overall with a pale face. Gathers in immense roosts in the winter, often with White-cheeked Starlings. Noisy, often giving harsh and ear-splitting calls, particularly when flying in to roost.

Beautiful little finch with a sharp pink bill, cherry-red mask, and brilliant black-and-yellow flashes in the wings. Juvenile (seen in late summer and autumn) has a plain head but is told easily by bold wing pattern. Uses a wide array of wooded and open habitats, from forests and gardens to steppe grasslands and meadows; often feeds on seeding thistles. Forms flocks in autumn and winter, gathering at food sources. Can be inconspicuous, but often detected by pleasant bubbling and twittering calls and song.

Medium-sized, beautifully-patterned francolin. Shows rufous patches in the wings in flight. Found on the ground in areas with thick grass, ranging from pure grassland to lush woodland. Mostly at low and moderate elevations, but sometimes found in high mountain grassland. Call is a rhythmic up-and-down repeated “chil-it, chil-chow”. Generally scarce, shy, and retiring. Range does not overlap extensively with similar francolins. Combination of complex facial pattern and belly heavily barred black-and-white are always diagnostic. Much more cleanly and boldly marked than the more washed-out and buffy Whyte’s Francolin.