Long-crested Pygmy-Tyrant

This relative of jays and crows is pale gray with a whitish face and black wings. Sexes are similar; juveniles are browner than adults. Found almost exclusively in coniferous forests at high elevations; feeds on pine cone seeds and stashes thousands of them in various places to eat later in the winter. Often found in flocks. Sometimes visits feeders. Similar in color to Canada Jay, but especially note bill shape: long, slender, and sharply pointed.

A gray-olive thrush with a white belly, buff-orange flanks, a distinctive bright orange bill and eye-ring, and a pale throat with a broad black moustache. Pairs occupy a variety of broadleaf woodland, thornveld, and open savanna, where it runs on the ground foraging for plant and animal matter. It gives a series of varied fluting notes and whistles, and is known to imitate the calls of other birds. The similar African Thrush also has a pale belly and occupies savanna, but its bill is yellow, not orange.

A large coastal kingfisher with a gleaming white head, a thin black line behind the eye, and a blue-green back. Juvenile duller, with buff on crown and underside. Found singly or in pairs in mangroves, on beaches, and along rocky shorelines, where it often perches on exposed rocks or in trees bordering coast. Clean white crown and narrow (not wide) black strip behind eye distinguish it from all forms of the smaller Collared Kingfisher. Vocal, giving harsh calls: a “choo-chew” descending on the second note and a rapid, agitated “kip-kip-kip-kip-kip.”