Olive-backed Flowerpecker

Tiny bird with a long, spiky red tail, a vocal and active resident of grass and bushes above treeline. Dull brown upperparts, grayish brown underparts, and a distinctive orange face and chin. Sexes similar. Not common and difficult to approach closely; often alone or in pairs foraging in paramo bushes or treeline borders. Song is an ascending series of high-pitched whistles “fuuuuuEE-peep-PEEP-PEE’REE!” Call is a soft, querulous “peew.” The only unstreaked Furnariid in the Venezuelan paramo. Endemic to the Andes of Venezuela.

A small, drab warbler-like bird of dry country. The upperparts are gray and the underparts pale, with a small amount of yellow on the vent. Found locally in dry thorn savanna and thornscrub, generally in drier habitat than Yellow-bellied Eremomela. Can be very similar to that species, but slightly smaller and slimmer-billed, with less yellow on the underparts. Also similar to Mouse-colored Penduline-Tit, but has a slightly longer and thicker bill, and yellow on the underparts.

A large hawk with a confusing range and unclear identification criteria. Resident in the Himalayas and a breeder in adjacent areas of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. A large “typical” buzzard, brown overall with blotchy patterning on the breast, dark upper “trousers,” and dark “elbows” and trailing edge on the underwing. Juvenile streakier below with a more finely barred tail and paler trailing edge. Compare with extremely similar Upland and Eastern Buzzards; note less eagle-like proportions than Upland, as well as marginally darker “trousers” and more prominent trailing edge than Eastern.