From Opus

Photo by Glen Tepke
Salineno, Texas, March 2005

Icterus graduacauda

Identification

19cm.

• Black head, wings and tail
• White edges to wing feathers
• Yellow back, rump, breast, belly and shoulder
• Pointed bill

Distribution

Found in the extreme tip of southeastern Texas and along the eastern Mexican coast south to Guatemala. Accidental vagrant to Puerto Rico.

Taxonomy

Subspecies^[1]

Polytypic. Consists of four subspecies.

• I. g. graduacauda:(richardsoni)

• Southern portion of Mexican Plateau

• I. g. audubonii:

• Southern Texas (lower Rio Grande Valley) and eastern Mexico (Tamaulipas)

• I. g. nayaritensis:

• West-central Mexico (southern Nayarit to western Jalisco, northern Colima and southern Michoacán)

• I. g. dickeyae:

• Mountains of south-western Mexico (Sierra Madre del Sur of Guerrero)

Habitat

Mesquite and riparian woodlands. Thorn scrub thicket

Behaviour

Breeding

Long green grasses are woven into a cup shaped nest, attached at the top to leafy twigs near the trunk. Three to five eggs are laid and are incubated by the female. The young fledge 11 days after hatching. Sometimes there are two broods.

The nests are often parasitized by the Bronzed Cowbird.

Diet

The diet consists mostly of fruit and insects.

References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. USGS
3. BF Member observations

• List of references

External Links