Bare-eyed White-eye

A small dark brown bird of the shaded understory and forest floor, found hilly forests. Brown overall; gray face is marked with a thin, curving black eyebrow and a weaker black moustachial stripe, though these marks are often hard to discern in the darkness of the thick growth in which it likes to forage. Song is a short but melodic warble; various calls, including a low churring note and a quick “whee-chuck.”

Highly localized weaver of east-central Tanzania, with a distribution centered on the Ruvu River. Breeding male is bright yellow, with orange-red on the face, and a dark-brown eye. The female is much duller, streaked brownish on the back and pale below, with a dark eye and a bill that is half-dark and half-pinkish. Breeds in wetlands, but ranges widely into surrounding savanna and woodland. Occurs alongside the very similar African Golden Weaver. Male Ruvu Weavers are distinguished by their dark eye, and females by their two-tone bill.

Only the male of this rotund ground-dweller is truly blue; the female only has a hint of blue on the rump and tail. Male is brilliant and eye-catching if seen well: sky-blue on the back with a polka-dotted light blue breast and belly. Female has gray-brown wings and finely barred white underparts. Both sexes boast a pale face and a thin black eyebrow, above which flames a lava-red crown (darker in males than in females). Forages on the densely-vegetated floor of forests from the lowlands up into montane regions, often in gorges, in ravines, and near streams. Song is a liquid ‘cho’mew-wit!’, with a clipped-sounding last note.