Northern Chestnut-breasted Wren

Unique, chunky finch. Note the massive bill (steely gray in summer, pinkish in winter) and blue-gray hindneck, like a shawl on an orangey head. Broad white tail tip and white wing band show mainly in flight. Despite distinctive appearance, shy and easily overlooked. Favors mixed and deciduous mature woodland, especially with beech, oak, and hornbeam, where tends to feed and perch quietly, high in the canopy. Also feeds on the ground in autumn and winter, sometimes forming single-species flocks. Gives high-pitched “tsik!” and lower ticking calls.

A large and stout-billed Galápagos finch confined to the island of Española. Identification is straightforward, since the only other finches living on Española (Small Ground-Finch and Gray Warbler-Finch) have relatively tiny bills. Bill is pure black on breeding male and marked with pink or orange on female and nonbreeding male. Male’s plumage is mostly sooty-black; female is browner with pale streaks on the underparts. Common in arid areas near the coast. Often seen perched on rocks and bushes, or hopping around on the beach.

Unique-looking flycatcher with a gleamingly clean white throat and a strong rusty orange tinge to the brow and forehead. Overlaps with closely related White-gorgeted Flycatcher but lacks that species’s gray face and black border to the white throat patch. Inhabits foothill and montane forests, where it forages close to the ground in lower vegetation. Both flycatches and gleans for prey more actively. Song is a high, thin series of whistles; a simple version is “tee-tee-tew’, to which additional phrases may be added. Vocal for a flycatcher, and calls often, giving harsh rattles, chips and chiks, and high thin notes.