South African Swallow

A mostly green medium-sized parrot with a contrasting head, gray in females and yellow in males. Shows a blue underwing in flight. Inhabits lowland forest edge, including coconut plantations, parks, and gardens, up to at least 1750 meters of elevation. Bulkier than Cardinal, White-naped, Yellow-bibbed, and Purple-bellied Lories, with slower wingbeats, and lacks the mostly red color of those species. The similar Eclectus Parrot is larger with a bigger bill, and male is also green but has a red underwing. Singing Parrot’s voice includes a wide variety of harsh cries and a whistling bell-like song.

Extremely similar to widespread Rufous Hummingbird; identical in plumage except for males' solid green back (which can be shown by Rufous too). Breeds only along a narrow strip of coastal California and southern Oregon. On females and immature males, the only way to separate them from Rufous is by the shape of the tail feathers, which is extremely difficult to determine without good photographs.

Dark brown foliage-gleaner of mature rainforest understory. Warm dark brown body, with a clean whitish throat patch and reddish brown tail. Does not have prominent reddish brown in the wings like many other foliage-gleaners do; the clean whitish throat, plain face (without a strong eyebrow) and habit of foraging low are other good distinguishing features to tell it apart from other foliage-gleaners. Primarily found in the understory of mature rainforest. Listen for its song, a musical trill with stuttered introductory note, “ch-trrrrrrrr”, similar to that of Chestnut-crowned Foliage-gleaner from denser secondary growth habitats, but slightly lower and with a more distinct introductory note.