Olive Flycatcher

Common and unmistakable. Mostly black with a bright red belly, a red ear patch, and a blue rump and shoulder. Young birds are duller orange instead of red. Pairs or small flocks forage at all levels of montane forest and edges, often with mixed-species flocks. Occurs from extreme western Venezuela to Bolivia, from around 2,600 to 3,600 m. Listen for strange song: a rambling jumble of squeaks and tinkles.

Brown-and-buff nightbird found in arid scrub and deserts in western Ecuador and northwestern Peru.  It is dark brown, heavily mottled with buff, and has a white throat. In flight, it has white crescents near the wingtips and white stripes along the outer tail feathers. Similar to Common Pauraque, but smaller, with a shorter tail and a different voice. Compared to Tschudi's Nightjar, with which it overlaps in northwestern Peru, Scrub is much darker and has a different song. Scrub Nightjar typically gives a clear, whistled, incessantly repeated “tWEE-oh,” more emphatic and not as burry as Common Pauraque.

The adult is a uniform drab-olive greenbul, slightly paler on the belly, with striking pale eyes that are characteristic. Juveniles have dark eyes and a small yellow gape. Pairs skulk and can be quite secretive in the midstory and canopy of forest, forest edge, and thickets up to 2000 meters of elevation, foraging on fruits and insects. It is often first detected by its loud, shrill “Willie! …..come out and play with me” song, ending with a nasal “sca-a-ared.” Northern birds sing a different song with a similar quality.