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The yellow-rumped cacique (Cacicus cela) is a passerine bird in the New World family Icteridae. It breeds in much of northern South America from Panama and Trinidad south to Peru, Bolivia and central Brazil. However, they have been sighted as far north as Nayarit state in Mexico.

Taxonomy

The yellow-rumped cacique was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Parus cela. Why Linnaeus picked this specific epithet is uncertain but it may be shorthand for the Ancient Greek kelainos meaning "black". Linnaeus mistakenly specified the Habitat as in Indiis (India). The type location was designated as Suriname by the Austrian ornithologist Carl Eduard Hellmayr in 1906. The yellow-rumped cacique is now placed in the genus Cacique that was introduced by the Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1799.

Three subspecies are recognised:

Description

The male is on average long and weighs about , with the female long and weighing approximately . The yellow-rumped cacique is a slim bird, with a long tail, blue eyes, and a pale yellow pointed bill. It has mainly black plumage, apart from a bright yellow rump, tail base, lower belly and wing "epaulets". The female is duller black than the male, and the juvenile bird resembles the female, but has dark eyes and a brown bill base.

The song of the male yellow-rumped cacique is a brilliant mixture of fluting notes with cackles, wheezes and sometimes mimicry. There are also many varied calls, and an active colony can be heard from a considerable distance. spiders

In Peruvian folklore, this species – like other caciques and oropendolas – is called paucar, or – referring to this species only – paucarcillo ("little paucar"). This species is apparently the paucar that, according to a folktale of Moyobamba, originated as a rumor-mongering boy who always wore black pants and a yellow jacket. When he spread an accusation against an old woman who was a fairy in disguise, she turned him into a noisy, wandering bird. The bird's appearance is thought to augur good news.

References

Sources

  • Cuervo, Andrés M.; Hernández-Jaramillo, Alejandro; Cortés-Herrera, José Oswaldo & Laverde, Oscar (2007): Nuevos registros de aves en la parte alta de la Serranía de las Quinchas, Magdalena medio, Colombia [New bird records from the highlands of Serranía de las Quinchas, middle Magdalena valley, Colombia]. Ornitología Colombiana 5: 94–98 [Spanish with English abstract]. PDF fulltext
  • Enjoy Peru [2008]: Manu – Aves. Retrieved 2008-DEC-22.
  • moyobamba.com (2007): Leyendas e historia de los barrios. Retrieved 2007-SEP-28.<!-- original source may be: "Moyobamba, apuntes turísticos y geográficos" by Pedro Vargas Roja -->
  • Jaramillo, Alvaro & Burke, Peter (1999): New World Blackbirds. Christopher Helm, London. <small></small>

Further reading

  • ffrench<!---not capitalised--->, Richard; O'Neill, John Patton & Eckelberry, Don R. (1991): A guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago (2nd edition). Comstock Publishing, Ithaca, N.Y.. <small></small>
  • Hilty, Steven L. (2003): Birds of Venezuela. Christopher Helm, London. <small></small>
  • Yellow-rumped cacique videos, photos and sounds – Internet Bird Collection
  • Yellow-rumped cacique photo gallery – VIREO