Golden Babbler

A flat-crowned, plain brownish bird with a long tail found in arid spinifex/tussock grassland in inland Australia. Fairly secretive and skulking but inquisitive. Compare Australian Reed-Warbler and Tawny Grassbird, both species of much wetter grasslands, not spinifex habitats. Compare also Rufous Songlark, which has a different song, more patterned back, and rusty rump. Song is a variety of chirped phrases, similar to reed warblers.

Burly gray cuckooshrike with dark eyes and a heavy bill. Endemic to the southern and east-central Philippines, from Bohol east to Samar, and south to Mindanao and Basilan. Both male and female are gray above and barred black-and-white below. Inhabits lowland and foothill forest and forest edge, where forages at middle and upper levels, sometimes associating with other species. Gives a range of high-pitched and scratchy calls, including doubled screeching notes: “whee-wheet!” Formerly treated as part of a more broadly-defined “Bar-bellied Cuckooshrike”.

A slow-moving and occasionally tail-twitching species of woodland thickets and dense cover; often found in mixed-species flocks. Note its black face and crown that is boldly marked with white spots and contrasts sharply with an entirely white throat. The similar Gray-crowned Palm-Tanager has a gray crown and a gray center to the throat. Vocalizations include a high thin “tseeoo” and “ts” as well as a nasal “byu.”