Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley.
| www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
Cogswell
1950
Leucosticte tephrocotis
July 23
(early pm)
10,500 ft. Job's Sister, Carson Range, Eldorado Co. Calif. - As I came up from across the gently sloping fell-field on the W side of the summit to peer over the brink of the high, rock cliffs of the N face of the peak, two Rosy Finches came flying in from around a jutting rock wall, giving a flight call which is finch-like, yet not closely similar to any other species I have heard. It is slightly harsh, nasal "chee (nt)", given rapidly 2 - 4 times in a group -- each whole utterance coming usually in coincidence with the prominent plunges in the course of the bird's flight.
After several turns in the air near the cliffs, which are about 500 ft. high, the calls stopped -- the birds apparently having alighted. In a few minutes I located the male hopping along a rock ledge about 1 ft. wide some 100+ ft. below me. Then the ♀ flew out from behind rocks to the right of him; he followed, and both of them alighted on the top pinnacle of the cliff not over 30 ft. in front of me. I was so busy looking