Kidepo Lark

Small, chunky, emerald-green finch of humid evergreen forest in highlands and foothills. Usually in pairs or small groups feeding at fruiting trees and bushes, often in the canopy where easily overlooked. Note the bright yellow belly and stubby bill. Blue crown patch often difficult to see, given that birds are usually overhead. Note similar Green Shrike-Vireo, which occurs in some of the same areas.

Typical barbet, green with a brightly-colored face. Facial pattern is plainer than some barbets’, but subtly attractive nonetheless: blue overall with red speckles on the edges and black lines through the eye and across the cheek. Forages in foothill and lowland evergreen forests, where it works the canopy for fruits and insects. Song is halting and tremulous, consisting of single notes followed by doubles and triples in an ascending but hesitant-sounding series of hollow trills.

A common tanager of savannas, forest borders, woodlands, and gardens. Often seen in pairs or with other species at fruiting trees, but usually not with mixed-species flocks. Males have a black face, throat, breast, and belly that is flanked by buffy sides. The crown and back are also buff and the wings and tail are dark-green. Females are buffy below with greenish back and wings, a pale throat, and a faint mask. The northern subspecies has a black mask (lacking the black throat and belly) with a violet gray throat and buffy belly.