Mountain Firetail

A bulbul-sized olive-brown bird that sports a diagnostic all-red bill and a red eye surrounded by a fleshy yellow wattle. The juvenile lacks the bright bill and eye coloration. Small groups occur in savanna and farmland, where they require large wild ungulates and domestic stock to forage on; they clamber agilely over host mammals, gleaning ticks, mites, and other ectoparasites, and occasionally drinking host blood. As they fly between large mammals, they give a distinctive “tsik-tsik” call. The similar Yellow-billed Oxpecker differs from Red-billed Oxpecker by having a yellow bill base and pale rump and lacking an eye-wattle.

A fairly common cloud forest tapaculo found in the eastern Andes of northern and central Peru. Adult is gray with brown bars on the lower underparts. Young birds are browner and extensively marked with buff bars and scales. Similar to Trilling Tapaculo and Junin Tapaculo, and identification should be based on range and voice. Rufous-vented Tapaculo gives sharp chips and low frog-like notes, either alone or in an accelerating series. Inhabits forest understory and usually tough to see.

An active rufous-colored songbird with a long tail that is regularly cocked and fanned. Has a brown upperside, a rufous-washed wing, and a largely rufous tail with a bold darker terminal band. Head is brown with a conspicuous white throat and a rich rufous brow. Note the black chest patch and pale belly. Singles and pairs can be found at middle to upper levels of montane forest, often in mixed-species flocks. Confined to Sulawesi. Unmistakable: the only fantail on Sulawesi. Song is a sequence of high-pitched, rapidly descending notes,  “WIT--wit-dee-dee-de-doo-doo.” Calls include a sharp, shrill “tzip” and “tchew.”