New World blackbirds | Icteridae

Troepialen | Ictéridos

An exclusively American family, with 32 species in the region. The bill is straight, sharp and without a hook, and it is used not only to pinch but also to lever things open: the bird drives the closed tip into a leaf sheath, a rolled leaf or a crack in the bark and then forces the mandibles apart, laying the food bare. The orioles of the genus Icterus are yellow or orange with black; they weave a hanging nest, often under a palm frond. Almost every large island has a species of its own, from Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and Jamaica to the Bahamas, Montserrat, Saint Lucia and Martinique. There are also black species, such as Greater Antillean Grackle in the Greater Antilles, Carib Grackle in the Lesser Antilles and several blackbirds of their own on Cuba and Puerto Rico. Shiny Cowbird lays its eggs in the nests of other species. Trinidad has South American species such as Crested Oropendola and Yellow-rumped Cacique, and Bobolink passes through on migration.