[order] Passeriformes | [family] Icteridae | [latin] Cacicus cela | [UK] Yellow-rumped Cacique | [FR] Cassique cul-jaune | [DE] Gelbburzelkassike | [ES] Arrendajo Comun | [IT] Cacico dal groppone giallo | [NL] Geelstuit-buidelspreeuw
Subspecies
| Genus | Species | subspecies | Breeding Range | Breeding Range 2 | Non Breeding Range |
| Cacicus | cela | LA | Panama to se SA | ||
| Cacicus | cela | cela | |||
| Cacicus | cela | flavicrissus | |||
| Cacicus | cela | vitellinus |
Physical charateristics
The male is 28 cm long and weighs about 104 g, and the female is 23 cm long and weighs 60 g. This 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 smaller and duller black than the male, and the juvenile bird resembles the female, but has dark eyes and a brown bill base.
Listen to the sound of Yellow-rumped Cacique
[audio:http://www.aviflevoland.nl/sounddb/Y/Yellow-rumped Cacique.mp3]
Copyright remark: Most sounds derived from xeno-canto
| wingspan min.: | 0 | cm | wingspan max.: | 0 | cm |
| size min.: | 28 | cm | size max.: | 29 | cm |
| incubation min.: | 13 | days | incubation max.: | 14 | days |
| fledging min.: | 34 | days | fledging max.: | 40 | days |
| broods: | 1 | eggs min.: | 2 | ||
| eggs max.: | 3 |
Range
It breeds in much of northern South America from Panama and Trinidad south to Peru, Bolivia and central Brazil.
Habitat
The Yellow-rumped Cacique is a bird associated with open woodland or cultivation with large trees. It prefers varzea forest edges, woodland and some semi-open habitats.
Reproduction
It is a colonial breeder, with up to 100 bag-shaped nests in a tree, which usually also contains an active wasp nest. The females build the nests, incubate, and care for the young. Each nest is 30?45 cm long and widens at the base, and is suspended from the end of a branch. Females compete for the best sites near the protection of the wasp nest. The normal clutch is two dark-blotched pale blue or white eggs. Females begin incubating after laying the second egg; hatching occurs after 13 or 14 days. The young fledge in 34 to 40 days, usually only one per nest. Yellow-rumped Cacique eggs and nestlings often fall prey to toucans and aracaris and the wasps seem to offer some protection against these predators. Sick explains that the wasps also repel Philornis flies which are attracted in enormous numbers by the birds’ smell. These flies are paratisized by a mite which then move on to the nestlings, many of whom die from the infestation. Another danger is the Piratic Flycatcher (Legatus leucophaius) which likes to take over a Yellow-rumped Cacique nest for its own and will often chase off a cacique sitting on eggs before throwing out the eggs and setting up its own nest. This is known as “nest paratisism” as opposed to “brood paratisism” where birds will lay eggs in another species’ nest and the egg will be hatched and cared for by the host species.
Feeding habits
It is very gregarious and large, noisy flocks can be seen flying over Amazon rivers particularly at dawn and dusk as the flocks move from their overnight roost to their feeding grounds and back again. This gregarious bird eats large insects and fruit.
Conservation
This species has a large range, with an estimated global Extent of Occurrence of 8,900,000 km