Scarlet-rumped cacique

Appearance

The scarlet-rumped cacique is sexually dimorphic like many Icteridae, though it mainly concerns size in this species. Males are 23 cm long and weigh 68 g, while the female is 20 cm long and weighs 53 g; they follow Bergmann's Rule, with the subtropical caciques of the cooler uplands being larger.

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.

Behavior

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''. The calls birds give to members differ between the three groups: those of the subtropical cacique sound rather atypical for icterids and more like the chatter of an excited great thrush . The scarlet-rumped cacique in the narrowest sense has a burry ''pleeo''; the Pacific cacique has a sweeter ''keeo'' or a ''shree''.

Habitat

The scarlet-rumped and Pacific caciques are birds associated with humid lowland primary forest or old secondary forest at up to 1,000 m ASL. The scarlet-rumped cacique is found from Honduras, through Nicaragua and Costa Rica, to Panama , while the Pacific cacique is found from eastern Panama , through western Colombia, to western Ecuador.