Thick-billed Seed-Finch

Tiny and strikingly-plumaged flycatcher with a long tail and distinct face pattern. Has a gray crown, a broad white eyebrow with a vertical black crescent running behind the eyes. The body is olive-yellow above and bright yellow below. An uncommon and threatened inhabitant of the middle levels of montane forests and forest edges including Araucaria forests. The song is a high-pitched trill.

The male is a striking, medium-sized, mostly dark bustard with a bold white cheek patch and a reddish bill. The female has a black belly and is elsewhere finely barred. In flight it has a conspicuous white window on both the upper and lower sides of the wing. Scattered individuals, sometimes associated in small groups, inhabit arid savanna and Karoo scrub. It singscalls a strident, ratcheting “kraak-kraak-kraak” which leads into a maniacal “raa-cha-ka-ka-ka....cha-ka-ka-ka” display as the male flies around 20–30 m above the ground, with legs dangling. In flight, Black Bustard’s lack of large white wing patches separates it from the similar White-quilled Bustard.

A relatively small swallow of western North America. Adult males have a white face and show turquoise-green upperparts and a purple rump in good light. Females and immatures are duller on the upperparts, sometimes just dusky-gray. In flight, note the prominent white "saddlebags" extending up from the underparts to the sides of the rump. Fairly common in a variety of open habitats, often foraging over meadows or ponds. Can be seen in large flocks, sometimes mixed with other species of swallow. Breeds as far north as Alaska; winters primarily in Mexico and northern Central America.