Sao Tome Short-tail

A large stork with a completely bare head and neck ideal for its scavenging habits. The adult’s face is red and the neck is yellow while the juvenile has a brownish head and a white, thinly-feathered neck. The upperparts are all dark while the underparts are mostly white. In flight, note the broad wings with distinctive white “armpits” and tucked in neck. Similar to the larger Greater Adjutant; Lesser has a more slender bill, has all-dark upperwings, and often adopts a more upright, less “hunched” posture. Often found in shallow marshes, fields, and swamps.

Stout-billed antshrike found in arid areas of western Ecuador and northwestern Peru. Male is brown and white with a black head, throat, and breast; tail is black with a white tip. Female is brown and buff with a black face speckled with white. Both sexes have a bushy crest and bold wing markings. Birds in the Marañon drainage look a bit different; males have paler faces and less black on the underparts; females have whiter underparts. Inhabits deserts, dry scrub, and deciduous forest understory. Song is a very fast, nasal trill that ends on a longer, higher note.

This spectacular hummingbird was only discovered in 2017, and made headlines when it was described as a new species to science a year later. It is currently known only from one mountain in the Andes of southwestern Ecuador called Cerro de Arcos. Male’s entirely blue throat separates it from the otherwise similar Ecuadorian Hillstar, which does not overlap in range. Female is much duller than male, with greenish upperparts, brownish belly, and green speckles on the throat. Found in paramo at very high elevations, where it feeds on Chuquiraga flowers, which are orange and shaped like tiny pine cones.