Layard's Warbler

A medium-sized honeyeater of mid-mountain oak forest and adjacent secondary areas. Upperparts olive, underparts gray with mottling and some streaking on the crown. Note distinctive white crescents beneath the eye and on the cheek. Solitary and inconspicuous in the upper levels of forest. No other honeyeaters have these white cresents on the face. Voice, an often repeated, whistled “chirrup!” or more musical, wrenlike “chii-pi-dup!”.

The most migratory of the Asian white-eyes, this minute bird breeds in the boreal woodlands of far northeastern China and Russia and winters in southern China and northern Southeast Asia. Frequently migrates in immense flocks and can often be seen in gatherings of thousands on headlands and islands. Bright yellow-green upper body, white underparts, and striking white eye ring give this species the general white-eye look, but the broad brush-stroke of rufous on the flanks distinguishes it from similar species. Vocalizations consist largely of high, sweet, rising “sweee”s.

Striking tanager of open woodland, consisting of two relatively distinctive subspecies. Distinguished from other warbling-finches in range by its black breast band. Nominate torquatus is a resident of the southern Bolivian Andes, especially open scrub and cactus forest of the dry valleys. Migratory pectoralis shows a thicker breast band and darker undertail coverts, and breeds in the Pampas, Monte, and northern Chaco dry forests in north central Argentina, dispersing north to lowlands of W Paraguay and SE Bolivia.