Subtropical Cacique

Overview

The subtropical cacique, Cacicus uropygialis, is a passerine bird in the New World blackbird family Icteridae. It is part of a complex where the scarlet-rumped cacique and the subtropical cacique are sometimes treated as separate species.

Identification

• Size and Build: A slim, long-winged bird with a relatively short tail; males measure 23 cm and females 20 cm.
• Plumage: Mainly black with a distinct scarlet patch on the lower back and upper rump; females are smaller and a duller black, while juveniles have a brownish tone and brownish-orange rump.
• Features: Possesses blue eyes and a pale yellow pointed bill.
• Song: A pleasant wheee-whee-whee-whee-wheet in the nominate subspecies, though other populations may produce a descending melancholy wheeo or a burry pleeo.

Habitat

The nominate subspecies C. u. uropygialis is found in the Andes of Colombia to northwestern Venezuela, eastern Ecuador, and southeastern Peru. Other subspecies occur from far northeastern Honduras to eastern Panama and western Colombia to western Ecuador.

Did you know?

Unlike some other caciques, they are not usually colonial breeders, yet they still construct a bag-shaped nest suspended from a tree branch, usually within a tree that also contains an active wasp nest.