Scaled Antbird

Sparrowlike ground dweller; crouches low to the ground and walks with pattering footsteps. Breeding male is a unique deep yellow-orange with black-and-white head pattern. Females and nonbreeding birds are more subtle but typically buffier than other longspurs. Also look for long wingtips, thin white eyering, and blurry streaks below. Breeds on Arctic tundra. In winter, look for small flocks in fields with short grass and exposed soil. Not found in mixed flocks. Rattle call similar to Lapland Longspur.

Retiring, small swimming bird of tropical lowlands. It’s not a grebe and it doesn’t like the sun; instead it favors slow-moving shady streams, mangroves, quiet ponds, and lake edges. Swims with a slight head-jerking motion and flies off low over the water when disturbed or climbs up into low branches and tangles; does not dive. The striped head and neck and stout pointed bill are distinctive. The cheeks are white on the male and orangish on the female.

Small, furtive, ground-dwelling songbird with thin white eyebrow. Adult males are slaty above and dusky ochre below, with a bright white eyebrow. Female is duller and browner overall, with a thinner eyebrow; note buffy-orange vent, which separates her from female and immature Collared Bush-Robins, which have white vents. Breeds in montane forests with dense understory and descends somewhat into similar habitats during the winter. Song is a short burst of pleasant warbled notes, and calls include a rising and mellow “wheet.” Formerly treated as a subspecies of White-browed Bush-Robin.