Large Lifou White-eye

Classic, mid-sized rail. Note the brown back, gray head and chest, barred belly, and reddish bill and legs. Found in wetlands ranging from flooded grassland to deep swamps. Especially favors cattail marshes. Fairly reclusive but walks out into the open more often than most rails. Usually detected by call, a loud, accelerating series of notes that descend the scale. Shares a similar color pattern with African Crake, but African Rail has a longer bill and an unspotted back.

A grayish riverine spinetail with rufous crown and shoulders. Known from only a few sites but locally common, alone or in pairs, mostly in young riverine successional vegetation (especially dense scrub) on sedimentary islands in the Orinoco River. Sexes similar. Easy to find by voice, a rattling series “quip, pip-pip-pip-pip” ending in a trill “prrr”. Very similar to Pale-breasted Spinetail, but differs in grayish body, less contrasting rufous patches, different voice, and river island specialization. Endemic to the Orinoco River of Venezuela.

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”.