Paria Redstart

Unique bird of scrubby oak and mesquite habitats with a sleek body, shaggy crest, long tail, and staring red eyes. Males are shiny black with a bluish sheen; white wing patches visible in flight. Females and juveniles are ashy-gray. Often in small groups; forages mainly on berries (especially mistletoe).

Tiny rotund, short-tailed bird, scarcely larger than a sparrow; like a diminutive partridge or quail but only distantly related. Brown with scaly streaking above, extensive black barring on the chest (more extensive on the female), and rich tawny flanks. Extremely difficult to detect, moving about invisibly in dense weedy vegetation in fields, forest edges, and farmland. Flying birds have whirring flight, show contrast between dark flight feathers and paler coverts. Courting females give sonorous, booming calls from dense vegetation.

Like many other babblers, this is a handsome bird but difficult to see well, as it forages in dense vegetation. Bright rufous above and gray below, with a black throat and bright white brow and circular spot at the base of the bill. Inhabits primary and secondary growth, including wet, swampy areas and weedy plantations from lowlands up into the foothills. Song is a series of rapidfire, resonant-sounding hoots. Calls include an array of loud, insistent chattering and rattling notes.