Laboratório de Tecnologia Educacional BIBLIOTECA DIGITAL               DE CIÊNCIAS

30cm Members of the Caprimulgidae family are very difficult to tell apart. The best clues to recognize the Pauraque are its very typical song and the fact that it is one of the few nighthawks to get so close to urban areas. The Pauraque spends the whole day quietly sat on the ground, so well camouflaged that it is almost impossible to see. It remains quiet when approached, but when you are too close the bird flies in a fast zig-zag, and lands few meters away. It is curious to notice that even landing close it is difficult to see. The eggs are laid directly on the ground and have an earthy color. The Pauraque can be easily seen on dirt tracks at night, when its eyes reflect the cars’...

Just like other seedeaters, it is practically impossible to tell this species apart from the brownish females, virtually identical to the other seedeaters’ females. Nevertheless the males present the chest and the head in black, the upper parts dark brown and the belly is yellow or beige. Its behavior is very similar to other seedeaters and may form mixed groups with other species when not breeding. It is less urban than the Double-collared and the Lined Seedeaters, being more common in grasslands and grain crops. May be raised as a cage bird. In the breeding season the couples split from the groups. The nest is a low bow made of grasses and the female usually lays 2 or 3 eggs.

16cm. Identification: The male is practically unmistakably recognized for the fully barred body and a black crest in the head. The female is ferruginous and has a crest and is barred in the head. It is currently the only antshrike which lives in really urban and disturbed areas. It is worth reminding that this bird has only recently conquered the urban environment. In the early 80s the first records of this antshrike in large cities were so unexpected that they yielded notes in scientific papers. Like other antshrikes it lives in couples, leaping and flying from branch to branch, usually through the short trees’ canopy in search for the small arthropods it feeds on. In the breeding seas...