White-vented Shama

A medium-sized, mostly brown eagle with yellow eyes and an unspotted white belly. In flight it has brown-barred white wings. Immatures are mostly rufous. It is nomadic in savanna, plains, and semi-desert, where it forages primarily for snakes and lizards, sometimes hovering before dropping onto prey. Beaudouin’s Snake-Eagle is similar but differs by having brown barring on the belly. Martial Eagle is much larger, has brown blotches on white underparts, and has uniformly brown underwings (visible in flight).

Fairly small, short-tailed antbird. Fairly widespread in lowland forest of the Amazon basin in northern South America, often around water. Less common than Spot-backed Antbird. Striking plumage with bold black chest streaks and white wingbars. Sexes similar but males have a black throat while females have a white throat. Compared with Spot-backed, note gray legs, whiter spots on the back, whitish (not grayish) face, and darker tail. Pairs are typically found in the understory, perching on vertical branches or vines near the ground.

Fairly common in the Andes of central Chile and adjacent Argentina; seen readily at ski resorts, around villages, on bogs, and on stony and grassy slopes. Often in flocks, associates readily with other seed-eating birds. Feeds mainly on the ground, but sings from prominent perches such as a rock or building. Not appreciably larger than other yellow-finches, but no similar species in most of range. May overlap in winter locally with Greenish Yellow-Finch, which has shorter wings and a shorter bill, and male never is as bright golden as the Greater Yellow-Finch.