Yellow-headed Brushfinch

An antbird with a very restricted distribution in the Araguaia Valley. Males are black with white wing bars and white tips to the tail, while females are similar but gray and slightly streaked on the breast. Occurs in gallery forest and adjacent second growth, where it forages in the understory and does not join mixed-species flocks. Males give a series of staccato notes and are sometimes joined in a duet by females giving high-pitched notes.

A small bird with a long blue tail that is held cocked. Breeding males are almost entirely blue with a strong black line from the bill through the eyes and around the back of the head, a black chest band, and a black rump. Nonbreeding males are fairly plain grayish-brown birds with black bills, bright blue tails, and some blue in the folded wing. Females are tan above with a duller blue tail and a reddish bill. Note that the patch between the eye and bill (lores) on females is a fraction paler than the bill (in Purple-backed Fairywren the lores are much darker than the bill). This species is fairly common in arid inland Australia, as well as in southwest Western Australia.

Small alpine finch with a quite long pointed bill and long tail. Males have a yellow-green body with gray crown and neck. The female is similar but is lightly streaked on the back. Two strong yellow wingbars and greenish yellow rump are very prominent in both sexes. Found in montane woodland with spruce and pine up to the treeline. Forages both in trees and on the ground. Song is a long series of twitters, trills, buzzes, hisses, and whistles. Calls include a rising nasal “dee” and a high-pitched, rather tinny “dzee.”