Crested Lark

Not a flycatcher, but related to Phainopepla, this elegant, long-tailed bird is fairly common but local in foothills and highlands. Typically perches upright, often on prominent perches. Usually seen in flocks at fruiting trees and shrubs or in flight high overhead, calling. Note the tufted crest, broken white eyering, and blue-gray (male) to dusky gray (female) plumage with variable yellow on the belly and under the tail, which, as seen from below, has a broad white band across the base.

A small loquacious inhabitant of scrubland, thickets, and brushy forest edges where it typically feeds within dense cover. The similar White-eyed Vireo can be distinguished by its smaller bill, greener back, and bright yellow sides; furthermore, adults have white, not dusky, eyes. The Cuban Vireo lacks the Thick-billed Vireo’s bold wingbars. The song is a scratchy jumbled “chick, didderwid-weee-zhee, chip” or variations thereof. Calls include a “zhip” given singly or in short bursts, a drawn-out harsh “zzhhe,” and a variety of chattering sounds.

A medium-sized, mostly dark vulture with an angular, naked, pale pink head and bulky coral-colored beak. In flight, the adult’s white “armpits” extend out as a stripe along the middle of the underwing; the larger females differ from males by having all-white innermost flight feathers. Widespread in open country but declining rapidly outside of protected areas. Often one of the first vultures to arrive at a carcass but also scavenges the kills of eagles; sometimes hunts and kills small mammals, birds, and reptiles.