Stub-tailed Spadebill
Platyrinchus cancrominus
The stub-tailed spadebill can grow up to 9.5 cm (3.74 in) long and weigh up to 12 g (0.42 oz). It has brown feathering on its head extending down to the mantle as well as its wings. It has a pale-coloured mandible leading to its white throat. The abdomen usually has yellow plumage in males, but females may have brown and yellow plumage as well. The short brown tail of the species is a distinguishing feature that gives it its name. Stub-tailed spadebill have a broad and flat bill and pinkish feet. It also has a distinguishable face pattern with distinctive yellow postocular stripes.
ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
White-throated Spadebill
Platyrinchus mystaceus
The white-throated spadebill is about 9 to 11 cm (3.5 to 4.3 in) long and weighs 7.5 to 12 g (0.26 to 0.42 oz). It has a large head with a bold facial pattern and a stubby tail. The sexes have almost the same plumage. Males of the nominate subspecies P. m. mystaceus have a dark olive-brown crown with a partially hidden yellow patch in the center; females have much smaller patch or none at all. Both sexes have pale buff-yellow as a patch above the lores, as an eye-ring, as a stripe behind the eye, and as a patch on the ear coverts. Voice: The "western" white-throated spadebills sing "a high, thin, rattling trill, 'pe'e'e'e'e'e'e'e'e'e'e'eet', rising slightly and sometimes preceded by abrupt 'squek' note" and their call is a "short and sharp 'squeep' ". The song and call have also been described respectively as "a rattled trill, ascending at least in east , that increases in volume" and "an abrupt, sharp 'squik!' ".
ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Where you might meet both
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Play today's Daily BirdPhotos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Stub-tailed Spadebill and White-throated Spadebill.