Willard's Sooty Boubou

Compact brown bird with a stubby black bill. Warm reddish brown with heavy black-and-white barring on the undersides, face, and eyebrow. Walks around the ground in dense montane forest with a springy gait, bobbing its tail up and down with each slow step. Exceptionally timid bird heard far more often than seen; listen for its long hooting song, an accelerating series of low toots.

Plump chickenlike bird found in rocky tundra and alpine summits. Plumage changes strikingly throughout the year. In winter, both sexes are pure white with black outer tail feathers. As summer progresses, male develops cold grayish-brown feathers on head, neck, and back; generally quite splotchy looking. Summer female is paler golden-brown with intricate black and white markings. Female nearly identical to Willow Ptarmigan; look for slightly smaller bill. Summer male Willow and Rock Ptarmigans can be separated by the colder grayish plumage on Rock Ptarmigan and in winter by the distinctive black eyeline on Rock Ptarmigan. Also note habitat differences. Best distinguished from White-tailed Ptarmigan by black outer tail feathers. Vocalizations include guttural groaning and clucking notes.

A medium-sized scrub-robin with gray-brown upperparts, a strong white eyebrow and moustache, and a diagnostic streaked breast and flanks (though streaking on the breast is sometimes diffuse). Races in northeast Africa have a rufous tail and back and extensive white on the upper wings, while farther south the back and tail are browner and the white on the wings is reduced to two distinctive wingbars. Pairs are abundant in woodland, preferring drier savanna, where they either skulk, run on the ground with the tail cocked searching for food, or perch in a prominent position singing a characteristic “twee-too-too” song, or a variety of other quavering sweet notes that can be complex and varied.