White-eared Solitaire

Large, long-billed dark sunbird with red shoulder tufts that are often hidden. Males have very long tail streamers and are dark iridescent green in breeding plumage, and gray-brown with some green patches in non-breeding plumage. Females are dark gray-brown. Found in grassland and heath habitats at very high elevations. Vocalizations include metallic calls and a quick, scrambled song. Similar to Malachite Sunbird, but generally found at higher elevations, and looks darker in all plumages; female lacks white edges to the tail.

Fairly common in the high Andes of central Chile and adjacent Argentina, where found at bogs, lakeshores, and along streams, usually with rocky slopes nearby. Migrates in winter to coast, where it occurs on rocky beaches. Relatively small and sprightly, often flicking wings and cocking its tail strongly, unlike the larger Dark-bellied and Seaside Cinclodes, which occur alongside in winter. Dark-bellied has bolder white head stripes and gray flanks (flanks brown on Gray-flanked!). Told from Buff-winged Cinclodes by colder plumage tones and white-streaked breast.

A small bird with a very long blue tail that is held cocked. Breeding male has a bright pale-blue helmet, black breast, purple back, and chestnut shoulders. Small pale tips are sometimes visible on the tail. Over much of the species’s inland range, females are overall grayish birds with pale fronts and long blue tails; however, females of the subspecies found in the sandstone regions of the Kimberley and Arnhem Land have contrasting blue crowns and backs. This species occurs over much of arid inland Australia and is found in open vegetation.