Cacique (bird)

Not to be confused with Caique.

Caciques
Golden-winged cacique
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Icteridae
Genus:	Cacicus Lacépède, 1799
Type species
Oriolus haemorrhous Linnaeus, 1766
Species
See text.

The caciques are passerine birds in the New World blackbird family which are resident breeders in tropical South America north to Mexico. All of the group are in currently placed in the genus Cacicus, except the aberrant yellow-billed cacique (Amblycercus holosericeus), and the Mexican cacique (Cassiculus melanicterus) which constitute respective monotypic genera. Judging from mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 sequence (Price & Lanyon 2002), the aberrant oropendolas band-tailed oropendola (Ocyalus latirostris) and casqued oropendola, Psarocolius oseryi (Ocyalus oseryi?) seem to be closer to the caciques.

Taxonomy

The genus Cacicus was introduced by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1799. The type species was subsequently designated as the red-rumped cacique (Cacicus haemorrhous).

Nesting colony of the red-rumped cacique (a single bird perched center-left)

The caciques are birds associated with woodland or forest. Most are colonial breeders, with several long, hanging, bag-shaped nests in a tree, each suspended from the end of a branch. Some species choose a tree that also contains an active wasp nest (such as Polybia rejecta) as a deterrent to predators (e.g. toucans), and females compete for the best sites near the protection of the wasp nest. The eggs are incubated by the female alone.

These are slim birds with long tails and a predominantly black plumage. The relatively long pointed bill is pale greenish, yellowish or bluish, depending on species, and most caciques have blue eyes (at least when adult). The female is typically smaller than the male.

Two species have the black plumage enlivened by a red rump, five have a yellow rump and in some cases yellow on the shoulders or crissum (the undertail coverts surrounding the cloaca). The two remaining species are all black with no bright colour patches. A single species, the Mexican cacique, has extensive yellow to the tail, but otherwise all caciques have largely black tails (something that separates them from the larger oropendolas).

Caciques eat large insects and fruit. Most are gregarious and typically seen in small groups. They are very vocal, producing a wide range of songs, sometimes including mimicry.

Most remain fairly common and are able to withstand some habitat modifications, but two west Amazonian species, the Ecuadorian and Selva caciques, are notably local and scarce.

Species

The genus contains 11 species.

Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
File:Solitary Cacique - Pantanal - Brazil H8O0547 (23889343835).jpg	Cacicus solitarius	Solitary cacique	Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela
File:Cacicus chrysopterus -Reserva Guainumbi, Sao Luiz do Paraitinga, Sao Paulo, Brasil-8.jpg	Cacicus chrysopterus	Golden-winged cacique	Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay
	Cacicus koepckeae	Selva cacique	Peru
	Cacicus sclateri	Ecuadorian cacique	Colombia, eastern Ecuador and northeastern Peru
File:Yellow-rumped cacique 10.jpg	Cacicus cela	Yellow-rumped cacique	South America from Panama and Trinidad south to Peru, Bolivia and central Brazil
File:Cacicus uropygialis -Panama-8.jpg	Cacicus microrhynchus	Scarlet-rumped cacique	western Colombia south to Ecuador
	Cacicus uropygialis	Subtropical cacique	Venezuela through Andes to Peru
File:Northern Mountain Cacique (Cacicus chrysonotus).jpg	Cacicus chrysonotus	Mountain cacique	Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela
	Cacicus latirostris	Band-tailed oropendola	western Amazon in Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and far southern Colombia
	Cacicus oseryi	Casqued oropendola	Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru
File:Red-rumped Cacique.jpg	Cacicus haemorrhous	Red-rumped cacique	south-eastern and coastal Brazil, including Paraguay, and parts of north-eastern Argentina

See also

• Mexican cacique, Cassiculus melanicterus
• Yellow-billed cacique, Amblycercus holosericeus

References

• ffrench, 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..
• Hilty, Steven L. (2003): Birds of Venezuela. Christopher Helm, London.
• Jaramillo, Alvaro & Burke, Peter (1999): New World Blackbirds. Christopher Helm, London.
• Price, J. Jordan & Lanyon, Scott M. (2002): A robust phylogeny of the oropendolas: Polyphyly revealed by mitochondrial sequence data. Auk 119(2): 335–348. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2002)119[0335:ARPOTO]2.0.CO;2 PDF fulltext
• Stiles, F. Gary & Skutch, Alexander Frank (1989): A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Comistock, Ithaca.

External links

• Cacique videos, photos and sounds—Internet Bird Collection