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- Cacicus uropygialis
Includes: Subtropical Cacique
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.
Distribution
Eastern Honduras to Panama and in the Pacific lowlands of South America from western Colombia south to Ecuador.
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.
Habitat
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.
