The Yellow-rumped Cacique is found in northern South America. There are three subspecies of this bird.
The male is mostly black with a yellow rump, tail base, lower belly and wing 'epaulets'. The eyes are blue and the bill is pointed and a pale yellow. The female is similar but duller. Juveniles resemble the female but the eyes are dark and the bill base is brown. They are found in large noisy flocks.
:---:Diet: Their diet consists of large insects and fruit.
:Courtship:
:Nesting: Yellow-rumped Caciques are considered colonial nesters and up to 100 nests will be located in a tree. The females build the bag-shaped nests which are suspended from the end of a branch and are usually built close to a wasp nests. (The wasps may help protect the fledglings from mites which can kill the fledglings.) The female usually lays two dark-blotched pale blue or white eggs and does all the incubation and feeding of the hatchlings.
:Habitat and Range:
:Vocalization: The Yellow-rumped Cacique males produce songs which are a mixture of fluting notes with cackles, wheezes and in the eastern range mimicry. The colony will also produce varied calls which can be heard from a considerable distance.
:Plumage/Molt: Probably molt annually.
:Migration: Not migratory.
:Tongue/feet:
:Bibliography: w4;June, 2013 b30