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Yellow-rumped Cacique | Cacicus cela
Geelstuitbuidelspreeuw | Cacique lomiamarillo
The Yellow-rumped Cacique is a black and yellow blackbird that, like the oropendolas, breeds in colonies of hanging woven nests. In the Caribbean it lives only on Trinidad. The colonies often hang in a tree with an active wasp nest, which appears to protect them against nest predators. Males are clearly larger than females.
Voice
Males have a large and varied repertoire of liquid whistles, rasping and cackling notes and rattles, often including imitations of other birds and other animals. An active colony can be heard from afar. The call is a short, harsh chak.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
Male about 28 cm, female about 23 cm. The plumage is black, with a bright yellow rump and lower back, yellow lower belly and undertail, a yellow basal half to the tail and a yellow patch on the wing coverts. The bill is long, pointed and pale yellow to ivory, the eye pale blue. The female is smaller and duller, sooty black with less gloss. Juveniles have a dark eye and a darker bill.
Confusion species
Crested Oropendola Psarocolius decumanus is much larger, with a chestnut rump, a yellow tail with black central feathers and no yellow in the wing. Epaulet Oriole Icterus cayanensis is smaller and slimmer, with a thin black bill, a dark eye and an all-black tail. Male Yellow-hooded Blackbird Chrysomus icterocephalus has a yellow head and no yellow on rump or tail.
Habitat
Open forest and forest edges, riverine forest, swamp forest and palm swamp, cacao plantations, farmland with tall isolated trees and village edges. It eats insects and fruit, often in groups. The colonies, sometimes of dozens of nests, hang in an isolated tree or over water; females compete for positions close to the wasp nest.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Resident on Trinidad, fairly common in the valleys of the Northern Range, such as the Arima Valley and along the Blanchisseuse road, and in the east and south, including in and around Nariva Swamp. Not recorded on Tobago. Outside the region from Panama through northern South America and the Amazon basin to Peru, Bolivia and central Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Along the Blanchisseuse Road and in the Arima Valley, where colonies hang in roadside trees. A colony can be found by listening for the din of singing males; at close range the wasp nest also becomes obvious, which is a reason to keep a distance.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species is common in much of tropical South America and also occurs in man-modified landscapes.
Scientific name
Cacicus cela | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Parus Cela; 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. Cacicus comes from Spanish cacique 'chief', a Taíno word, after the striking, 'lordly' appearance. Why Linnaeus chose cela is unclear; it may be short for Greek kelainos 'black', fitting the mainly black plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Suriname.