All species › Passerines › New World blackbirds, troupials and allies › Ecuadorian Cacique
Ecuadorian Cacique | Cacicus sclateri
Rouwbuidelspreeuw | Cacique ecuatoriano | Cacique-equatoriano
The Ecuadorian Cacique is an all-black cacique with a pale blue iris that is almost restricted to north-western Amazonia. It lives in flooded forest and river-edge forest along rivers and lakes. Most of its range lies within the guide area.
Voice
Clear, liquid whistles and short phrases, mixed with nasal and grating calls.
Recording: John V. Moore — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
20–23 cm; the male is slightly larger than the female. Entirely glossy black, with no yellow or red. The iris is pale blue, the bill long, pointed and pale ivory to greenish white. The sexes are otherwise alike. Juveniles are duller black, with a darker iris.
Confusion species
Solitary Cacique Cacicus solitarius is larger, has a dark iris and usually keeps low in dense thickets. Selva Cacique Cacicus koepckeae has a yellow rump and occurs in a different part of Peru. Velvet-fronted Grackle Lampropsar tanagrinus has a short black bill and a dark iris. Giant Cowbird Molothrus oryzivorus is larger, with a black bill and a small head.
Habitat
Várzea, igapó, palm swamp, river-edge forest and forest edges along rivers and lakes in the lowlands, mostly below 400 m. It forages singly or in pairs in the middle and upper levels, often with mixed flocks, eating insects and fruit. The nest is a hanging pouch on a branch, often over water.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the far south-east, in the Amazonian lowlands. In Ecuador in the Amazonian lowlands of the east. In Peru in the north-east, in the lowlands of Loreto. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Hardly occurs outside the guide area; at most locally in adjacent western Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search the shores of blackwater lakes and creeks in the Amazonian lowlands of Ecuador and north-eastern Peru; from a boat, birds can be seen in the treetops along the water.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Its riverine habitat is still intact in large parts of its range.
Scientific name
Cacicus sclateri | (Dubois, 1887)
Dubois described the species in 1887 as Agelaeus sclateri; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Cacicus was introduced in 1799 by De Lacépède. The genus name comes from Spanish cacique, 'chief', a word from the Taíno language of the Caribbean. The species name honours Philip Lutley Sclater (1829–1913), an English ornithologist and zoologist. The specimen the first description was based on came from Ecuador.