Short-tailed Pipit

A large pale wheatear. Gray-brown above with warm orangish tones on white underparts and a pale white eyebrow. Tail is predominantly black with white edges and it contrasts sharply with its snow-white rump. Somewhat similar in coloration to a toned-down female Northern Wheatear, but visibly larger, shorter-tailed, and longer-billed (all of which are accentuated by the typically tall, erect posture). Inhabits flat, open areas, often at middle to high elevations. Remarkable song has a tumbling quality that includes long ringing whistles, chattering, and imitations of other sounds in the surrounding environment. Calls include shorter whistles and hard “chak’s,” like rocks being struck together.

A large, mostly black-and-white hornbill that occurs in thickets, dense woodland, and riverine and coastal forest. It can be surprisingly inconspicuous while eating large fruit in forest trees, but in flight it has noisy wingbeats and a far-carrying baby-like wailing “whaaaaaa waa waa” call. In flight note narrow white hind edges to the mostly dark wings; the similar Black-and-white-casqued Hornbill has a very broad white hind edge, and the Silvery-cheeked Hornbill has no white hind edge.

A medium-sized, dark-eyed weaver in which males and females are distinctly different, but both are colorful. Varies geographically: upperparts are black in the east and brownish-black in central Africa. Found in woodland, thick scrub, moist savanna, gallery forest, and forest clearings and edge. Usually alone or in pairs. Vocalizations are typical of weavers: “chet” notes and a sizzling, “radio static” song. Formerly treated as the same species as Olive-naped Weaver, under the name “Black-necked Weaver.”