Scarlet Minivet

An attractive flycatcher of forest understory from the lowlands to low mountains in northern and central Luzon. Male has a deep blue throat, chest and upperparts, blackish face, and pale blue forehead and eyebrow. Female has a brown back, rufous wings and tail, gray head, orange throat and pale eyebrow. Male is somewhat similar to Blue-and-white Flycatcher, but Blue-breasted Blue has orange-fringed white belly. Female somewhat similar to Mugimaki female but has a gray head. Song is a high-pitch, shrill “tsiiiiiiiii!” followed by a variety of lower notes.

Chunky dark brown raptor with a white belly marked by thin bars. Immatures are brown when perched, and show rufous patches in the underwing in flight. Found in savanna habitats. Soars frequently and sometimes hovers. Very similar to Short-toed Snake-Eagle, but has darker upperparts and narrower dark bars on the belly; the front of the underwings looks white and unbarred in flight. Immature similar to immature Black-breasted and Short-toed Snake-Eagles, but identified by the rufous patches on the underwings.

A very small nondescript sunbird with a short orange-based bill that curves uniformly along its length; easily mistaken for females of other sunbirds. The only features on the olive upperparts are indistinct paler eyebrows and lines running under the eyes, and yellow edging to the wings. Although often hidden, the male has yellow or whitish (not red) tufts at the shoulders. Singles are local and inconspicuous at the edges of lowland and riverine forest, sometimes entering secondary growth; it joins mixed-flocks and is frequently attracted to epiphytes in mossy clumps. Calls a high-pitched “tseeep” and trills. Little Green and Fraser’s sunbirds are similar to Bates’s but brighter, with straighter bills and more distinct yellowish eye-rings; Ursula’s Sunbird has a long decurved bill and grayish face and underparts.