Gray-hooded Bush Tanager

Rather local large sparrow of foothills and highlands in central Costa Rica. Found in brushy woodland and edge and overgrown clearings; usually on or near the ground and often in pairs. Like other ground-sparrows, spends most of its time skulking in shady and often dense cover. Large black spot in middle of chest. Head pattern is distinctive: rusty cap, black forehead and cheek wrapping around a white face with a beady dark eye.

Small black-and-white woodpecker with round-headed, short-billed profile. Both sexes have a pale, lightly streaked belly and white bars on the back, but only the male has a tiny red fleck at the back of the eyebrow. Often forages on thin twigs and outreaching branches too slender for other woodpeckers, hanging upside down like a tit or nuthatch. Slightly larger Gray-capped Woodpecker is longer-billed, with a buffy belly and different head pattern. Gives extremely high, thin “tsi tsi tsi” calls and a single quick, echoing drum.

A medium-sized, long-tailed bird of montane forest undergrowth. The female is all rufous-brown, rufous tail and dark edging to the wing feathers. Male is very similar to Fan-tailed Monarch, but Black Fantail has a short white eyebrow and lacks the white side stripe. It also has a black and yellow bill. Female is similar to Dimorphic Fantail but larger, brighter rufous with black central tail feathers. Voice, a high-pitch, up-and-down “pluk plik pluk plik!”. Also a high-pitch jumbled warble ending in a loud “wichoo wichoo!”.