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4

Pezopetes, I 

October 4, 1960
Cerro Punta  

Came across a pair of these birds (possibly a third, in the distance) in the usual area, just below the upper pasture.

One bird out in open in bush along side of road. Obviously nervous and excited, presumably by my presence. Lots of WF's and TF's. Lots of int. mov. of flight bowing. Then flew across road, landed exposed in another bush. Performed same movements there. All this time it had slight CR. Also all this time uttered a loud clear whistled single notes: "Se-weeeee" or (less frequently)"Se-e-weeeeeee" [[image]]

Quite reminiscent of Altapetes [[a?]] in Ecuador. During part of this time, after it had crossed the road, these long whistled notes (which I shall call "LW") were apparently alternated with briefer softer notes. Each LW was accompanied by opening and closing of the bill. But I also noted that the bird was opening and closing its bill more rapidly between LW's. Some of this rapid opening and closing was apparently silent, but I did hear a few very soft "Tseet" Notes uttered, apparently just as the bill opened a couple of times. So I presume all this rapid opening and closing was accompanied by very soft "Tseet"s. These "Tseets" seemed to be a little briefer than the ECN's of the Yellow-throat. The bird continued to utter LW's and "Tseet"s, with sight CR, many TF's and WF's, and bowing movements for quite some while. I could not see any rigid correlation between particular movements and particular notes. I rather imagine this bird was reacting both to my presence and to its mate's absence.

After a while the mate flew across the road and joined this bird. Lots & lots of "greeting". All apparently vocal. The first response was a series of

Transcription Notes:
[[image: sketch of "Se-weeeee" and "Se-e-weeeeeee" notes]]