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Tangara, Oct. 31, 1958, II

Well well! Song. The yellow-head went up to a perch near the top of its cage, and sat there in a posture comme ça rather fluffed.
[[drawing of bird]]
Small-headed + large-bodied looking
Head feathers held so that the forehead was smooth + the crown came to a peak on top. Sat there absolutely motionless for quite some time, giving a variety of vocalizations.  Quite a lot of single "Frit" CN's - quite loud. These were sometimes repeated in multinote series.  The longer the series the softer the individual notes became.  The commonest multi-note series consisted of 4 notes - - - -.  I thought this was the "song" at first, but then other more complex vocalizations developed.  Some series of 6-7-or 8 notes just like the soft "Frit" notes of the usual 4 note series. And some series of many more notes.  These were much softer than the notes of the 4-note series.  So soft that I actually couldn't hear them.  I think that these series of notes may have consisted of very rapidly repeated & soft "Frit" notes, without much variation between the individual notes; but I can't be sure of this (it is possible that the bird uttered a warbling phrase.)  In any case, it is obvious that this is the exact equivalent of the "silent songs" of other species.

Very nice from a comparative point of view (I wonder if it could be significant that this species is largely green - like the Green Tanager.  It is possible that the green species are the most primitive of the Callistes.