Narrow-tailed Starling

Handsome male is gray above with a bright red throat, black chest, and white belly. Also note white eyebrows and “moustache” stripe, as well as white panels and edges on a black tail. Female is duller, cold gray-brown above with a white belly and throat. Extremely similar to Himalayan Rubythroat: note gray flecking on white flanks of male and white “moustache” (striking in males, pale and sometimes unnoticeable in females). Breeds in alpine and subalpine open areas with scattered scrub and boulders; preferred habitat averages higher and more open than Himalayan. Winters in lowland scrub. Song is a series of loud rich warbles, which average shorter and less varied than those of Himalayan Rubythroat.

Skulky, long-tailed antbird. Males are dark gray; females are lighter grayish brown above, orange below with an orange face. Found in shrubby secondary growth and dense, wet areas, including bamboo thickets, overgrown oxbow lakes, and riverside vegetation. Its song is a distinctive froggy “pur-PEER,” sometimes answered by a second bird giving a series of clucking notes: “purp, purp, purp, purp. . . .”

A highly variable finch with three distinct forms in the process of diversifying. The massive large-billed form is known as “Dunn’s Finch”; the two smaller forms with petite bills are a drab olive lowland form (Lowland Finch) and a bright yellow highland form (Highland Finch). Females of all forms are smaller, duller, and more streaked than males. Endemic to Inaccessible Island, where it is the only finch. Lowland form prefers grassy coast and cliffs, highland form prefers the plateau, and Dunn’s form prefers taller fruit-bearing woodland. In all forms, male sings a 3-note “whit-it-teeu” and the female whistles; Dunn’s form sounds deeper and slower than the others.