The scarlet-rumped cacique (Cacicus uropygialis) is a passerine bird species in the New World blackbird family Icteridae. This species has sometimes been split into two species: the scarlet-rumped cacique (Cacicus microrhynchus) and the subtropical cacique (Cacicus uropygialis).
Taxonomy
The scarlet-rumped cacique was formally described in 1843 by the French ornithologist Frédéric de Lafresnaye based on a specimen collected in Colombia. He coined the binomial nameCassicus uropygialis where the specific epithet is from Medieval Latinuropygium meaning "rump". The scarlet-rumped cacique is now one of ten species placed in the genus Cacicus that was introduced in 1799 by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède.
Cacicus uropygialis pacificusChapman, FM, 1915 – eastern Panama (Darién Province) to western Colombia and western Ecuador (El Oro)
Cacicus uropygialis uropygialisLafresnaye, 1843 – Andes of Colombia to northwestern Venezuela, eastern Ecuador, and southeastern Peru
The taxa C. u. pacificus and C. u. microrhynchus are sometimes treated as a separate species with the English name, the scarlet-rumped cacique. The nominate C. u. uropygialis is then known as the subtropical cacique.
Description
The scarlet-rumped cacique is sexually dimorphic like many Icteridae, though it mainly concerns size in this species. Males are 23cm (9in) long and weigh 68g (2.4oz), while the female is 20cm (8in) long and weighs 53g (1.9oz);
This cacique is a slim long-winged bird, with a relatively short tail, blue eyes, and a pale yellow pointed bill. It has mainly black plumage, apart from a 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.
The song of these birds is a pleasant wheee-whee-whee-whee-wheet, but the Pacific cacique has a descending melancholy wheeo-wheeo-wheeo-wheeo, while C. m. microrynchus in the narrowest sense has a burry pleeo; C. m. pacificus has a sweeter keeo or a shree.
Behaviour
in Costa Rica
Unlike some other caciques they are not usually colonial breeders; like them they have a bag-shaped nest. It is built about 3.5–30m (11–98ft) above ground, in a tree which usually also contains an active wasp nest. The bird's nest is 36–64cm (14–25in) long, widens at the base, and is suspended from the end of a branch. The normal clutch is two dark-blotched white eggs. The male will assist in feeding the young, but does not incubate.
↑Ridgely, Robert S.; Tudor, Guy (2009). Birds of South America: Passerines. Helm Field Guides. London: Christopher Helm. pp.674–675. ISBN978-1-408-11342-4.
↑Fraga, R.M. (2011). "Family Icteridae (New World Blackbirds)". In del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol.16: Tanagers to New World Blackbirds. Barcelona, Spain: Lynx Edicions. pp.684-807 [748-749]. ISBN978-84-96553-78-1.
.jpg)