Slender-billed Flufftail

Sprightly and vividly-colored little finch with a black head and a fiery orange patch on the forehead. Sexes are similar, though female tends to have a smaller forehead patch than the male. Juvenile is warm brown with black spotting on the back and wings; beware of confusion with rosefinches and greenfinches, the former of which lacks yellow in the tail and the latter of which has streaked underparts. Inhabits open forests, scrubland, and meadows in montane areas. Often ventures into towns and villages. Calls include quiet fluty notes and twitters; song is a jumble of trills interspersed with random call notes.

Fairly common locally on lakes with surrounding reeds and wetlands with open water; spends much time sleeping. The lowland counterpart to the very similar Andean Duck; the two species may occur together in a few places, but Andean Duck is rare in lowlands, where Lake Duck is the default species. Lake Duck has a squarer head and a slightly longer tail than Andean Duck, but male plumages are very similar. Female Lake Duck often has more contrasting and paler markings with pale barring on sides and bolder stripes on the face than Andean Duck.

A small barbet that frequents forest, forest edge, and even urban areas with enough vegetation. Despite its name, the yellow throat is not often obvious; instead look for this species’ overall pale whitish underparts and black upperparts with a distinctive white moustache. Shows a small yellow rump when seen from above. Not all individuals have a yellowish throat; this is more common in the western part of the range. Similar to Red-rumped and Yellow-rumped Tinkerbirds, but note the Yellow-throated Tinkerbird’s overall bicolored appearance, its fast nasal song, and, in the west, its yellowish throat. Song is a typical fast, nasal tinkerbird song with short, rapid sets of 2-5 “po-po-po” notes given at approximately 5 notes per second, often with hesitant pauses between note sets.