Golden-winged Cacique Cacicus chrysopterus Scientific name definitions

The Golden-winged Cacique is a little bit of an oddball in this group. It is a small and relatively quiet cacique. The main flash color is yellow. It is a small black, shaggy crested, cacique with a yellow rump and wing patch. It has yellow or whitish eyes, sometimes pale blue. The Golden-winged Cacique is found in pairs or family groups rather than flocks, and most often it is seen alone. It feeds in trees on fruit and insects, by diligently probing into epiphytes, dry leaves and flaking bark, usually keeping to the middle strata. It is an active and curious cacique, resembling an oriole in its general behavior. It is found in two separate populations, in the Yungas of Bolivia, south to Tucuman, Argentina as well as another in Paraguay, S Brazil, Uruguay and adjacent NE Argentina. This cacique is a solitary nester, not colonial like most in the genus. It builds a hanging basket nest which is 60 cm to 1m in length; a very long nest given that this is a small cacique! Many of the nests are woven with a black fibre that is the hyphae of a fungus of the genus Marasmius. The nests are placed relatively low in trees, usually less than five meters from the ground.

Male 20·7 cm, 34·6–47·2 g; female 19·3 cm, 30·2–34 g. Plumage is black overall , with bright yellow patch on lower rump and bright yellow patch on wing (median and inner greater upperwing-coverts); iris pearly white to yellow; bill pale bluish-grey; legs black. Sexes similar, female slightly smaller than male. Juvenile is duller than adult, and with dark eyes.

E Bolivia (Santa Cruz) and S Brazil (from Mato Grosso do Sul and Rio de Janeiro) S to N Argentina (Tucumán, Catamarca, Santa Fe and Entre Ríos) and C Uruguay.

Insects and other invertebrates, small vertebrates, also fruits and nectar. Stomach contents included small beetles (Coleoptera) and lepidopteran caterpillars. Wild fruits eaten include those of the trees Alchornea glandulosa and Cabralea canjarana, also of Rhipsalis epiphytic cacti, and arils of the vine Chamissoa altissima; feeds also on cultivated fruits, e.g. guavas (Psidium), oranges (Citrus), mulberries (Morus). Nectar obtained from flowers of epiphytic and terrestrial bromeliads (e.g. Bromelia and Aechmea), also from Fuchsia. Commonly probes and gapes into bark and epiphytes, and opens hollow twigs and insect galls; in Misiones (NE Argentina), seen to search webs built by tent caterpillars (Malacosoma). May hang upside-down while foraging. Mostly arboreal, frequently in mixed-species foraging flocks, commonly with Icterus pyrrhopterus and other icterids. Usually in pairs or family groups, but also reported also in flocks of 30 individuals, sometimes even more, in non-breeding season or during altitudinal movements.

Song variable, rather musical; usually starts with lower-pitched notes, followed by sudden crescendo, e.g. “dreow-deo-deo-psikléé-o”. Male bows while singing. Paired birds may communicate with low-pitched whistles or warbles with odd harmonics. Appears at times to mimic other birds. Contact call an ascending, rasping nasal “aa-ah”.