Lovely Sunbird

A medium-sized bird of mid-montane forest understory. Sooty gray color, paler on the belly, darker on the face and wing. Note the pale eye and white throat contrasting with the dark face. Birds on the Huon Peninsular have a gray throat. Perches on low branches, flicking tail and scanning the ground for insect prey. Smoky and Blue-gray Robins have limited altitudinal overlap, but White-eyed is usually found at lower elevations, has a white eye and usually a white throat. Voice, a loud, upslurred whistle “wit!”. Also, a rising series of notes, first whistled then becoming raspier and accelerating.

Relatively colorful cisticola with a rufous cap and back of the neck, and a gray back with dark streaking. There are two bands across the tip of the tail, one pale and one black. Found in open montane habitats including grassland, bracken, and marsh edge. The song consists of several consecutive “tsee-wit” couplets. As with other cisticolas, habitat and vocalizations are important to identification. Similar to Wailing Cisticola, but has a brighter rufous cap without streaking, and paler underparts.

Bright rufous flycatcher of the Andean subtropical zone. Fairly small size, entirely cinnamon underparts, brown back, and bright rufous wing patch render this species distinctive. Usually found in pairs, perched conspicuously at the edge of the cloud forest. Sexes alike. Voice is also a good way to detect this species: listen for the sputtering, slightly descending trill. The subspecies found in Venezuela and northern Colombia is even brighter cinnamon than its southern counterparts, especially on the back and wings.