Yellow-rumped Cacique
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| Cacicus cela (Linnaeus, 1758) |
The Yellow-rumped Cacique, Cacicus cela, is a passerine bird in the New World family Icteridae. It breeds in much of northern South America from Panama and Trinidad south to Peru, Bolivia and central Brazil.
The Yellow-rumped Cacique is a bird associated with open woodland or cultivation with large trees. It is a colonial breeder, with up to 100 bag-shaped nests in a tree, which usually also contains an active wasp nest. Each nest is 30-45 cm long and widens at the base, and is suspended from the end of a branch. The normal clutch is two dark-blotched pale blue or white eggs, incubated by the female alone. Females compete for the best sites near the protection of the wasp nest.
This is a slim bird, with a long tail, blue eyes, and a pale yellow pointed bill. It has mainly black plumage, apart from a bright yellow rump, tail base, lower belly and wing epaulets. The female is smaller and duller black than the male, and the juvenile bird resembles the female, but has dark eyes and a brown bill base.
The male is 28 cm long and weighs 104 g, and the female is 23 cm long and weighs 60 g. This gregarious bird eats large insects and fruit.
The song of the male Yellow-rumped Cacique is a brilliant mixture of fluting notes with cackles, wheezes and sometimes mimicry, and an active colony can be heard from a considerable distance.
Yellow-rumped Cacique has benefited from the more open habitat created by forest clearance and ranching.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Cacicus cela. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- New World Blackbirds by Jaramillo and Burke, ISBN 0-7136-4333-1
- Birds of Venezuela by Hilty, ISBN 0-7136-6418-5
- Birds of Trinidad and Tobago by ffrench, ISBN 0-7136-6759-1
[edit] External links
- Yellow-rumped Cacique videos on the Internet Bird Collection
