African Palm Swift

Uncommon, inconspicuous raptor with a fairly small bill. Adult has a pale head and reddish underparts with black streaks on neck. Juvenile has a more reddish head with less streaking. In flight, tail has obvious square corners with a dark band at the base. Sails over forest woodland habitats just above the tree canopy, typically with little wing movement. Occurs singly or in pairs. At a distance, and particularly when heavily worn, take care to identify juvenile birds from Black Kite, which has more uniformly patterned plumage.

A mostly brownish babbler with a black head and a white eye. The underparts are pale in the west and become increasingly darker in the eastern part of the range. Found in moist woodland, dense savanna, scrub, gallery forest, forest edge, cultivated areas, and gardens. Almost always in groups, which feed by hopping across the ground. Similar in behavior, shape, size, and overall brown coloration to Brown Babbler, but easily separated by the black head and the lack of a contrastingly paler rump. Calls include a raspy babbling, nasal calls, and a dry clucking, all usually given by a whole group in chorus. 

Fantail with a broad white eyebrow, dark upperparts, and white underparts. Crown and ear-coverts black, contrasting with white eyebrows. Throat mottled black-and-white. Pair of wingbars formed by well-separated white teardrop-shaped spots. Female slightly paler with a browner head. Immature like adult, but has rufous tips to dark feathers of upperparts. Frequent song is a 4- to 7-note melodious whistling phrase that ascends and then sometimes descends or is left incomplete. Contact call is a harsh “switch-wich.” Inhabits dry, open wooded habitats, ranging from dry deciduous forest to scrubby agricultural edges.