Flightless Steamer-Duck

A spectacular harrier patterned in black and silvery white. The male is distinctive with black head, striking yellow cere and eyes, and black shoulders, breast, and wingtips, contrasting with its silvery-white underparts and forewing. The female is gray-and-brown above and lighter below, with a small white rump. Females superficially resemble female Pallid and Montagu’s Harriers, but have a paler underwing with narrow dark barring and sparse streaking on underwing coverts. The species hunts by quartering suitable habitat on buoyant wings. It eats mostly small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and insects.

A grayish bushshrike with green wings and tail and a unique head pattern: the black mask curls down to form a narrow black breast band surrounding the white throat. Some morphs have a purple dot at the base of the throat. Juvenile has less distinct face pattern than adult. A rare resident, restricted to a handful of sites in the Cameroon-Nigeria highlands, where it is found singly and in pairs in the canopy of primary hill forest between 930 and 1550 meters of elevation. Calls include an electric grating “cha-cha-cha-chggrrt-chggrrt-chggrrt” like a laser-gun sound effect in a computer game, as well as harsh croaking, whistles, and ticks. May snap wings when agitated. 

Poorly known Peruvian endemic found only in high Andean cloud forest northeast of the city of Huancayo. It was described to science in 2013. Adult male is plain gray, lacking the rufous barring on the lower underparts shown by Rufous-vented Tapaculo and Trilling Tapaculo. Female plumage not yet known with certainty. Younger birds are heavily marked with bars or scales. Best identified by range and voice. Typical song is a lengthy series that starts out with simple notes and gradually transitions into sputtering bursts.