All species › Passerines › New World blackbirds, troupials and allies › Golden-winged Cacique
Golden-winged Cacique | Cacicus chrysopterus
Goudvleugelbuidelspreeuw | Cacique aliamarillo | Tecelão
The Golden-winged Cacique is a small cacique with a yellow wing patch and a yellow rump, which in the guide area occurs only in Bolivia. It lives in humid foothill forest and in the transition to drier forest, away from the Amazonian lowlands. The core of its range lies further south-east, as far as the Atlantic Forest of Brazil.
Voice
A series of clear, whistled phrases, mixed with nasal and grating notes. The call is a short, sharp chek.
Recording: Marcos E. Sosa — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
19–21 cm; the male is slightly larger than the female. Glossy black, with a conspicuous yellow patch on the wing coverts and a yellow rump. The bill is pointed and pale bluish grey to ivory. The sexes are otherwise alike; the female is slightly duller. Juveniles are duller, with less yellow.
Confusion species
Mountain Cacique Cacicus chrysonotus is larger, lacks a yellow wing patch in Bolivia and lives higher, in cloud forest. Yellow-rumped Cacique Cacicus cela is larger, also has yellow at the tail base and on the undertail coverts, and lives in the lowlands. Epaulet Oriole Icterus cayanensis has a slimmer, black bill, a chestnut or yellow shoulder patch and no yellow rump.
Habitat
Humid foothill and lower montane forest of the Yungas, semi-humid forest and forest edges, roughly between 500 and 2000 m, locally lower in drier forest. It forages singly, in pairs or with mixed flocks in the middle and upper levels, searching for insects among leaves, moss and epiphytes, and also eats fruit. The nest is a hanging pouch, usually suspended singly from the tip of a branch.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In the guide area only in Bolivia, on the eastern slope of the Andes and in the adjacent hill country in the south and centre of the country. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in south-eastern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and northern Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search foothill forest and forest edges in southern and central Bolivia for mixed flocks; the yellow wing patch stands out as the bird forages among the leaves.
Conservation status
Least Concern. It tolerates forest edges and degraded forest, but depends on trees.
Scientific name
Cacicus chrysopterus | (Vigors, 1825)
Vigors described the species in 1825 as Xanthornus Chrysopterus; 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 comes from Greek khrusos, 'gold', and pteron, 'wing', for the yellow wing patch. The specimen the first description was based on came from Brazil.