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Photo by Gambia14
Canopy Tower, Panama

Cacicus uropygialis

Includes: Subtropical Cacique

[edit] Identification

23 cm. Long-winged bird, with a short tail, blue eyes, and a pale yellow pointed bill. Black plumage, 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.

[edit] Distribution

Eastern Honduras to Panama and in the Pacific lowlands of South America from western Colombia south to Ecuador.

[edit] Taxonomy

Three subspecies accepted:

• C. u. microrhynchus from extreme northeast Honduras to eastern Panama
• C. u. pacificus from eastern Panama (Darien) to western Colombia and western Ecuador
• C. u. uropygialis in the Andes of Colombia to northwest Venezuela, eastern Ecuador and southeast Peru

pacificus and microrhynchus are sometimes split as Cacicus microrhynchus (Scarlet-rumped Cacique), uropygialis would be renamed as Subtropical Cacique then.

[edit] Habitat

[edit] Behaviour

It bag-shaped nest high a tree, suspended from the end of a branch, which usually also contains an active wasp nest. 2 dark-blotched white eggs are laid. The male will assist in feeding the young, but does not incubate.

The diet includes large insects, spiders and small vertebrates, and some fruit.

[edit] External Links