Chestnut-winged Starling

Endemic to Cuba. A small flocking species of brushy and wooded habitats. Note the stout bill with curved culmen, and the white slash along the front of the folded wing. Male is glossy black, female is very dark blackish-gray. No similar species occurs in its range. Song is a complex buzzy trill that drops in pitch and is followed by various chips and thin “tsi” notes. Calls include a hard chip, often rapidly doubled, and a high buzzy “tsit.”

A large gray cuckooshrike with a strong, hooked bill. Upperparts are mostly gray with black primaries; male darker than female. Rump and upper tail are paler than back, which is apparent in flight. Male has gray throat and upper breast becoming paler on the belly. Female generally has paler underparts with faint gray bars except from the lower belly to the tail. Both sexes have a dark patch from the bill to slightly behind the eye, giving a masked impression. Juvenile is brownish, heavily scaled with whitish-buff, and mottled on the underparts. Immature has broader white edges to wing feathers. Vocal. Call is a two-noted, rather nasal “gii-yaak,” uttered in flight as well as from a perch. Inhabits lightly wooded country, avoiding wet forests.

This antpitta has a very small range in the northern part of Colombia’s western Andes. It was described to science in 2010 and is considered highly endangered. Upperparts and hood are dull chestnut brown, and it has a gray breast and belly. Similar to Chestnut-naped Antpitta, but in Urrao the crown is much duller and throat is chestnut (not gray). Inhabits bamboo-laden understory of high elevation cloud forest, and usually very hard to see, though it sometimes visits a feeder within the Dusky Starfrontlet Nature Reserve. Song is three curt whistles; there is a pause after the first note, and the last note is higher.