FAMILY COEREBIDAE 



actions was the congeneric Red-legged Honeycreeper (C. cyaneus). 

 When not in mixed flocks, Shining Honeycreepers occur alone, in 

 pairs, or in small family groups, but not in large groups of conspecifics. 

 Beehler (Wilson Bull., 1980, pp. 513-519) observed flocks comprising 

 these 2 species and Dacnis cayana foraging in a flowering tree, Luehea 

 seemanii (Tiliaceae), on the Pipeline Road, Canal Zone, January 12- 

 15, 1978: there was very little inter-individual aggression during the 

 4 days that all 3 species concentrated in a small portion of the tree. 

 Besides a few aggressive metallic clicking or ticking notes the only 

 vocalization Skutch ever heard was a repetition of a single, slight note 

 uttered once per second for 15 minutes by a male perched on a dead 

 twig high in a tree. Eisenmann (in litt.) has heard a high, thin tzit, a 

 thin, drier tsip, and a slightly rattling tsrrrp. 



At Almirante, I saw a Shining Honeycreeper carrying nesting ma- 

 terial into a mass of epiphytes in a tree over the Western River on 

 January 28, 1958, but I could not locate the nest. In Costa Rica, 

 Skutch has found parents feeding young as late as October, suggesting 

 a long nesting season. A nest that Skutch found on June 13, 1970, was 

 situated 7 m from the ground in the terminal twigs of a tall timber 

 bamboo. The nest was a shallow cup attached by its rim to thin hori- 

 zontal twigs; it was made of epiphytic root fibers so thinly woven that 

 the eggs and young later could be seen through the bottom. The two 

 eggs, which could not be reached for examination, were laid on June 17 

 and 18. Both the nest construction and incubation of the eggs were 

 performed entirely by the female, although the male assisted in feeding 

 the young, which hatched from the eggs on June 30 or July 1, after an 

 incubation period of 12 or 13 days. When the young were 8 days old, 

 Skutch observed that they were being fed primarily insects, supple- 

 mented by seeds of Clusia, a large genus of mostly epiphytic trees and 

 shrubs. At 13 days, Clusia seeds were the leading element in their diet, 

 followed by insects and dark berries. On this day 1 nestling made a 

 few exploratory flights and left the nest entirely by the end of the after- 

 noon; the second nestling departed the following day. 



CYANERPES CAERULEUS CHOCOANUS Hellmayr: Purple 

 Honeycreeper, Mielero Purpureo 



Cyanerpes caerulea chocoana Hellmayr, 1920, Archiv. f. Naturg., ser. A, 85(10), 

 p. 14 (footnote). (Sao Joaquim del Choco, W. Colombia.) 



Very small; bill long, decurved; male with black lores, eye stripe, 

 throat, wings, tail, and thighs, rest of body violaceous blue; female with 



