From Opus

Photo by Gary Clark
Las Horquetas, Costa Rica, March 2009

Icterus prosthemelas

[edit] Identification

• Relatively small, slender bill with decurved culmen
• About half of the lower mandible shows lighter coloring

Male:

• Black
• Yellow shoulders mostly covered by scapulars
• Yellow rump, undertail, abdomen, belly and lower breast

Female & Immature resemble several oriole species and are quite variable
Southern-most birds can be similar to males, but otherwise they have the crown and upper mantle yellowish olive with more or less black feathers intermixed.
Juveniles are pale versions of the females, even having paler wings.

[edit] Distribution

Southeast Mexico from Puebla, Veracruz, and northern Oaxaca to West Panama, mostly on the Atlantic slope.

[edit] Taxonomy

The Black-cowled Oriole is divided into two subspecies, nominate and praecox. It was previously considered part of a more widespread species that included the birds now known as Greater Antillean Oriole. The combined species carried the names of Black-cowled Oriole which now is used for this part, and Icterus dominicensis which now is the scientific name for Greater Antillean Oriole.

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

• I. p. prosthemelas:

• Caribbean slope of south-eastern Mexico (southern Veracruz) to Nicaragua

• I. p. praecox:

• Caribbean slope of Costa Rica and adjacent western Panama

[edit] Habitat

Moist lowland forests.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Vocalisation

Song: A fairly quiet, rich, scratchy warble.
Call: A chuttering scold chuh-chuh...or cheh-cheh-cheh-chek, and varied nasal calls, cheh or chek, and a sharper beehk or bihk, etc., also a quiet tee-u.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/Clements%206.4.xls/view.

• List of references

[edit] External Links

The following link will search the Gallery for this species using the scientific name Icterus prosthemelas. Images of this species may be placed under the pre-split scientific name, Icterus dominicensis (not at the time of editing), same as the current Greater Antillean Oriole. Searching for the common name Black-cowled Oriole may find pre-split photos of Greater Antillean Oriole or of the current species.