Gray-and-gold Tanager

A small bunting of montane areas. During the breeding season, restricted to areas primarily between 1,500 and 2,100 meters above sea level; moves lower during the winter, but still tends to prefer valleys in mountainous and hilly areas. Both sexes are distinctive within their range and habitat; male is grayish blue with a white belly, while the female is brown overall with a paler belly and a dirty-orange head.

Tiny, rare, skulking rail-like bird that is unlikely to be seen unless you’re expressly looking for it at a handful of known sites. Male has rich rufous and olive-green color, while female is a subdued dark brown. Found in a few wetlands at middle and high elevations in eastern Madagascar, usually adjacent to rainforest. Call is an odd and earthy series of “tduk” calls, sometimes given singly and sometimes in triplets. Longer-billed than the much more common Madagascar Flufftail, and both sexes of Slender-billed Flufftail have duller coloration.

This long-tailed beauty is Jamaica’s national bird along with Black-billed Streamertail, which is now considered a separate species. Male has a glittering green body, black crown, and red bill; younger males and molting birds may not have the signature tail streamers, giving them a somewhat different look. Female lacks the long tail and is similar to Black-billed Streamertail, but usually shows a pink tinge to the base of the lower part of her bill. Her relatively large size and longer bill help separate her from Vervain Hummingbird. Found in forest in most of the island except for the far east, where it is replaced by Black-billed Streamertail, and readily comes to feeders. Local names for this species include “doctor bird” and “swallow tail humming bird”.