Scarlet-rumped cacique
Scarlet-rumped cacique | |
---|---|
![]() | |
in Panama | |
song | |
Conservation status | |
![]() Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1] | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Icteridae |
Genus: | Cacicus |
Species: | C. uropygialis |
Binomial name | |
Cacicus uropygialis (Sclater & Salvin, 1865) | |
![]() |
The scarlet-rumped cacique (Cacicus microrhynchus) is a passerine bird species in the New World family Icteridae.
Distribution
- C. m. microrynchus – Central America
- C. m. pacificus – Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena
Description
The scarlet-rumped cacique is sexually dimorphic like many Icteridae, though it mainly concerns size in this species. Males are 23 cm (9 in) long and weigh 68 g (2.4 oz), while the female is 20 cm (8 in) long and weighs 53 g (1.9 oz); This cacique is a slim long-winged bird, with a relatively short tail, blue eyes, and a pale yellow pointed bill. It has mainly black plumage, apart from a scarlet patch on the lower back and upper rump. The female is smaller and a duller black than the male, and the juvenile bird has a brownish tone to the plumage and a brownish-orange rump.
The song of these birds is a pleasant wheee-whee-whee-whee-wheet, but the Pacific cacique has a descending melancholy wheeo-wheeo-wheeo-wheeo, while C. m. microrynchus in the narrowest sense has a burry pleeo; C. m. pacificus has a sweeter keeo or a shree.[2]
Ecology and distribution
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Scarlet_Cacique_%2824502477503%29.jpg/220px-Scarlet_Cacique_%2824502477503%29.jpg)
Unlike some other caciques they are not usually colonial breeders; like them they have a bag-shaped nest. It is built about 3.5–30 m (11–98 ft) above ground, in a tree which usually also contains an active wasp nest. The bird's nest is 36–64 cm (14–25 in) long, widens at the base, and is suspended from the end of a branch. The normal clutch is two dark-blotched white eggs. The male will assist in feeding the young, but does not incubate.
Footnotes
- ^ BirdLife International (2020). "Cacicus uropygialis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T22733589A138356612. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22733589A138356612.en.
- ^ Jaramillo & Burke (1999)
References
- Taxonomy of the birds of the world: The complete checklist. p. 524.
- The Complete Birds of the World: Every Species Illustrated. p. 578.