24 Extraordinarily Beautiful Birds You Might Not Have Heard About

Black-backed Puffback (Dryoscopus cubla): A small, canopy-loving black-and-white shrike with a fiery red eye. When excited, males can raise fluffy white feathers on the rump to resemble a puffball. The sexes differ, with males clean-cut and females duller and more cream-and-gray in coloration. Singles and pairs frequently join mixed-species flocks foraging agilely for insects, working the canopy of dense broadleaf woodland and riverine, lowland, and montane forest. Black-backed Puffbacks are often detected by their characteristic song: a loud click followed by a whistled wheeeoo, the combination given repeatedly. Photo credit: Sabine Jean von Lengeling