Scarlet-rumped Cacique

The scarlet-rumped cacique (Cacicus uropygialis) is a passerine bird species in the New World blackbird family Icteridae. This species has sometimes been split into two species: the scarlet-rumped cacique (Cacicus microrhynchus) and the subtropical cacique (Cacicus uropygialis).

Taxonomy: The scarlet-rumped cacique was formally described in 1843 by the French ornithologist Frédéric de Lafresnaye based on a specimen collected in Colombia. He coined the binomial name Cassicus uropygialis where the specific epithet is from Medieval Latin uropygium meaning "rump". The scarlet-rumped cacique is now one of ten species placed in the genus Cacicus that was introduced in 1799 by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède.

Three subspecies are recognised:

• Cacicus uropygialis microrhynchus (Sclater, PL & Salvin, O, 1865) – far northeastern Honduras to eastern Panama (except Darién Province)
• Cacicus uropygialis pacificus Chapman, FM, 1915 – eastern Panama (Darién Province) to western Colombia and western Ecuador (El Oro)
• Cacicus uropygialis uropygialis Lafresnaye, 1843 – Andes of Colombia to northwestern Venezuela, eastern Ecuador, and southeastern Peru

The taxa C. u. pacificus and C. u. microrhynchus are sometimes treated as a separate species with the English name, the scarlet-rumped cacique. The nominate C. u. uropygialis is then known as the subtropical cacique.

 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;
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.

The song of these birds is a pleasant ´, but the Pacific cacique has a descending melancholy ´, while C. m. microrynchus in the narrowest sense has a burry ´; C. m. pacificus has a sweeter ´ or a .

Behaviour: Unlike some other caciques they are not usually colonial breeders; like them they have a bag-shaped nest. It is built about above ground, in a tree which usually also contains an active wasp nest. The bird´s nest is long, widens at the base, and is suspended from the end of a branch. The normal clutch is two dark-blotched white eggs. The male will assist in feeding the young, but does not incubate.