Brown-chested Barbet

Blue and gray jay with a black mask and white crown. It’s restricted to Andean cloud forest in northwestern Ecuador and western Colombia. Similar to both Turquoise and Black-collared Jays, but lacks the black breast band and has a dark gray back and breast. Noisy groups roam widely through the forest, giving a fun variety of strange calls, some of which sound like they came straight from an 80’s arcade game.

A small but strong-billed cisticola that is rich gray-brown on the back and pale below. The back is plain in breeding plumage and heavily streaked in the non-breeding season. Note the black band and pale tips across the end of the tail. Found locally in savanna and dry woodland. Very similar to Dorst’s Cisticola, and best distinguished by song, but has a brighter rufous cap and whiter underparts. Also similar to Foxy and Rufous Cisticolas, but larger, with a rufous cap that contrasts with the gray-brown back. Perches up to sing a brief squeaky warbled phrase, thin and high-pitched.

A chunky finch of upper montane forest edge and shrubby borders of subalpine grasslands. Brown head, brown back and wings, and red rump. Male has an orange-yellow bill and reddish belly. Female has an orange-yellow lower bill, dark upper bill and reddish sides. Juvenile has a brown belly and all dark bill. The adults are distinctive in their habitat. Juvenile Snow Mountain or Alpine Munias are also brown with a gray bill, but the juvenile Mountain Firetail is chunkier with a red rump. Voice, a strange rasping, squeaking song and a nasal “wek”.