Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley.
| www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
March 9 Chatteman Bay, Cocos Island, Costa Rica
when in flight. Saw noise less than 10 ft. from the ground and flew below 30 ft. (2a 3 only). Had a horrible time shooting them. After about 10 shots I got one, and the only other one I hit landed in a honeysuckle out of reach. The leaves around them would disappear and I could see the bird crouching on a bare twig; most frustratingly.
Saw one Coccyzus fumiginosus: the wings and tail lower coverts are rust colored in flight and the head is grey, the throat and breast white. It is a very shy shyerky bird and probably a lot more common than what I saw. It was well up in a tree over a gulley where I couldn't possibly have been otherwise if shot.
I saw another Redstart, this with darker breast patches up here, but missed it on a longish shot. Got nothing else. The White Woodies were buzzing around a lot, and their is a low, throaty "warrrrk" repeated 4 to 5 times. Lots of Boobias and Frigatebirds audible, but seldom visible. The White Woodies are mostly perching in the trees but occasionally a lone bird will fly out to the ocean. I got back to camp about 1, after going down a cliff to the creek - fell 25 ft through some ferns and landed on a ledge 25-30 ft. from the bottom and had to get help to get down. After lunch I went back up to try to get some more flycatchers, but they had almost entirely stopped singing and I only saw 3, of which I was close enough to shoot at (missed it, needless to say).
The finches were mostly quiet now also. Saw a yellow-billed