Salinas Monjita

Stunning small bird with long, white-tipped tail. Head, back and breast streaked black-and-white in male; female also streaked but back and crown are rufous. Both sexes show rufous rump and belly. Wings have contrasting white spots and wingbars. Often in pairs in bamboo thickets or at edges of montane forest. Hard to see but easy to hear, raspy song starting with two strong peeps followed by two or three longer, wheezy notes. No similar species in range.

Large, heavy-billed woodcreeper. Has rather unmarked plumage, but note the buffy eyebrow, moustachial stripe, and throat. No other woodcreeper within its range has such a large, strong bill. Inhabits deciduous dry forests and wooded caatinga. Song is a whining series of unmelodic notes, such as “nk-wiirh, week! weeer, weeer, weeur, weuur.”

Uncommon, petite plover of beaches, coastal lagoons, lakeshores, gravel bars, and sandbars along rivers. Note slender black bill, brightly patterned head, narrow black breast band, and long pinkish legs. Despite the name, does not have white collar around back of neck like most small plovers. Typically found in pairs or as single birds; not in flocks like many other small plovers. At high tide they often roost with other plovers such as Wilson’s and Semipalmated plovers.