Appearance:

Unmistakable bird in most situations. Azure blue above, and orangy brown below. Very short tail, and large head with long and heavy bill. Often overlooked despite it's bright colours, due to small size and obscuring habitat. Often one only catches a glimpse of the light blue back, when it flies away close to the water surface in a whirring, darting motion.

Sound:

Most heard is the thin and penetrating contact call: A short "tzee", or disyllabic "tzee-tzu", with a ringing metallic quality. In excitement it is often alternated with ringing trills "tzeerrrrrrrrrr".

Contact call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

CC-sound:Dawid Jablonski, Licence,Link.

Appearance:

Short foldable crest. Pale eye-ring and supercilium. Long primary projection (primaries extend well beyond tertials), white trailing edge to wing and white outer tail feathers. Tail much longer than in Wood Lark.

Sound:

Song a pleasing energetic stream of chirping, merry trills, interspersed with mimicry. Trills quite resonant with fairly full tone. Song usually given in flight high in the air. Less characteristic, shorter, weaker and more varied song when given from ground. Most typical flight call a short trilling "chirrup", with the end note noticeably lower pitched than the start. Also several other more cryptic calls.

Song:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC