Chestnut Rail

Highly distinctive and unusual species that is more reminiscent of a large seedeater. It has a unique migration pattern, breeding during the rainy season in the Tumbes eco-region in northwestern Peru and southwestern Ecuador and wintering in the western Amazon. The male is hard to mistake for any other species; notably larger than any similarly-patterned seedeater in range, with a longer, thinner bill. Females are dingy greenish overall, with a pale yellow belly faintly streaked with olive. Combination of size and shape, and association with males of this species should clinch the ID.

Tiny brown ball of a bird with a gray face, a scaled chest, and a bright orange throat. Like other wren-babblers, often remains well hidden in dense undergrowth. Restricted to the eastern Himalayas, where it inhabits gullies, ravines, and valleys with extensive cover in foothill and montane forests. Song is a loud, bright “witchity-witchity-witchity!”

Small woodpecker of open forest and forest edge. Note size, pale eyes, and broad-striped head pattern. Darkness of the crown varies; palest in northern and peninsular India and darkest in Sri Lanka. Where it overlaps with Gray-capped Woodpecker, note the more “blocky” head pattern, pale eyes, and white-spotted tail of Brown-capped. Gives a short chittering trill that rises and falls quickly.