Tachira Antpitta

A fairly common cloud forest tapaculo found in the eastern Andes of northern and central Peru. Adult is gray with brown bars on the lower underparts. Young birds are browner and extensively marked with buff bars and scales. Similar to Trilling Tapaculo and Junin Tapaculo, and identification should be based on range and voice. Rufous-vented Tapaculo gives sharp chips and low frog-like notes, either alone or in an accelerating series. Inhabits forest understory and usually tough to see.

A plump, small-headed, pigeon-like bird. Mostly chestnut-cinnamon speckled with white; the male has a gray face and yellow spectacles, and the female has a yellowish face. It prefers foraging on the ground for seeds in semi-arid woodland on red Kalahari sands, where it can be inconspicuous. Gathers in large groups at drinking sites in the morning. The soft “chuup-chuup chop-chop” call is diagnostic.

A large, colorful waterbird of wetlands with a purplish-blue body and front of the wings, a dark brown back and back of the wings, white under the base of the tail, and bright red legs, bill, and forehead shield. Somewhat similar to Eurasian Moorhen but larger, blue rather than gray, without the yellow-tipped bill. Juvenile also resembles Plain Bush-hen, but with a larger and thicker bill. Voice includes a harsh croaking “kraak!”