Brooks's Leaf Warbler

Tiny woodpecker of lowland and foothill rainforest east of the Andes. Both sexes have pale yellow underparts with extensive black barring (lacking any speckles or vertical streaks), golden-brown back, and black crown with white spots. Male additionally has red or yellow spots of forehead. Usually found in clearings or at forest edge, tapping incessantly at small branches as it tries to extract small insects.

A medium-sized scrub-robin with gray-brown upperparts, a strong white eyebrow and moustache, and a diagnostic streaked breast and flanks (though streaking on the breast is sometimes diffuse). Races in northeast Africa have a rufous tail and back and extensive white on the upper wings, while farther south the back and tail are browner and the white on the wings is reduced to two distinctive wingbars. Pairs are abundant in woodland, preferring drier savanna, where they either skulk, run on the ground with the tail cocked searching for food, or perch in a prominent position singing a characteristic “twee-too-too” song, or a variety of other quavering sweet notes that can be complex and varied.

Strange nocturnal bird like a mix between an owl and a nightjar. Large head and huge yellow eyes. Overall grayish-brown with splotchy patterning. Black mustache stripe helps distinguish from Great Potoo, along with smaller size. Spends the daytime perched on the end of a snag, where it blends in perfectly and becomes very difficult to spot. At night, hunts mainly for flying insects from an exposed perch. Found in open forested habitats with scattered trees, such as forest edges, along rivers or roadsides, or even in disturbed patchy woodland. Listen for mournful series of whistles, descending in pitch: “POO, POO, Poo, poo, poo.”