Icterid
Icterids | |
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Adult male Bullock's oriole | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Superfamily: | Emberizoidea |
Family: | Icteridae Vigors, 1825 |
Genera | |
29, See text |
Icterids make up a family (Icteridae) of small- to medium-sized, often colorful, New-World passerine birds. Most species have black as a predominant plumage color, often enlivened by yellow, orange or red. The species in the family vary widely in size, shape, behavior and coloration. The name, meaning "jaundiced ones" (from the prominent yellow feathers of many species) comes from the Ancient Greek ikteros via the Latin ictericus. This group includes the New World blackbirds, New World orioles, the bobolink, meadowlarks, grackles, cowbirds, oropendolas and caciques.
Despite the similar names, the first groups are only distantly related to the Old World common blackbird (a thrush) or the Old World orioles.
Icteridae is not to be confused with Icteriidae, a newly created family consisting of one species (the Yellow-Breasted Chat). Although the names are similar, the two families are not closely related.[1]
Characteristics
The majority of icterid species live in the tropics, although there are a number of temperate forms, such as American blackbirds and the long-tailed meadowlark. The highest densities of breeding species are found in Colombia and in southern Mexico.[2] They inhabit a range of habitats, including scrub, swamp, forest, and savanna.[3] Temperate species are migratory, with many species that nest in the United States and Canada moving south into Mexico and Central America.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Euphagus_cyanocephalus_male_gaping.jpg/220px-Euphagus_cyanocephalus_male_gaping.jpg)
Icterids are variable in size, and often display considerable sexual dimorphism, with brighter coloration and greater size in males being typical. While such dimorphism is widely known in passerines, the sexual dimorphism by size is uniquely extreme in icterids. For example, the male great-tailed grackle is 60% heavier than the female. The smallest icterid species is the orchard oriole, in which the female averages 15 cm in length (6 in) and 18 grams (0.040 pounds) in weight, while the largest is the Amazonian oropendola, the male of which measures 52 cm (20 in) and weighs about 550 grams (1.21 pounds). This variation is greater than in any other passerine family (unless the kinglet calyptura belongs with the cotingas, which would then have greater variation[4]). One unusual morphological adaptation shared by the icterids is gaping, where the skull is configured to allow them open their bills strongly rather than passively, allowing them to force open gaps to obtain otherwise hidden food.
Icterids have adapted to taking a wide range of foods. Oropendolas and caciques use their gaping motion to open the skins of fruit to obtain the soft insides, and have long bills adapted to the process. Others such as cowbirds and the bobolink have shorter stubbier bills for crushing seeds. The Jamaican blackbird uses its bill to pry amongst tree bark and epiphytes, and has adopted the evolutionary niche filled elsewhere in the Neotropics by woodcreepers. Orioles will drink nectar.
The nesting habits of these birds are similarly variable, including pendulous woven nests in the oropendolas and orioles. Many icterids are colonial, nesting in colonies of up to 100,000 birds. Some cowbird species engage in brood parasitism: females lay their eggs in the nests of other species, in a similar fashion to some cuckoos.[3]
Some species of icterid have become agricultural pests, for example red-winged blackbirds in the United States are considered the worst vertebrate pest on some crops, such as rice.[5] The cost of controlling blackbirds in California was $30 per acre in 1994. Not all species have been as successful, and a number of species are threatened with extinction. These include insular forms such as the Jamaican blackbird, yellow-shouldered blackbird, and the St Lucia oriole, all threatened by habitat loss; and the tricolored blackbird of California, which is threatened by habitat loss and destruction of nests.
Folklore
Cacique and oropendola species are called paucar or similar names in Peru.[6][7] It is said that as paucares are considered very intelligent, Indians feed the brains to their children to make them fast learners.[8] As the male plays no part in nesting and care of the young, a man who does not work may be called a "male paucar".[9]
Systematics
FAMILY ICTERIDAE
- Genus Dolichonyx – bobolink
- Genus Agelaius – typical American blackbirds (5 species)
- Genus Xanthopsar - saffron-cowled blackbird
- Genus Agelasticus (3 species)
- Genus Chrysomus (2 species)
- Genus Nesopsar – Jamaican blackbird
- Genus Sturnella – North American meadowlarks (2 or 3 species)
- Genus Leistes – South American meadowlarks (5 species)
- Genus Xanthocephalus – yellow-headed blackbird
- Genus Dives (3 species)
- Genus Euphagus (2 species)
- Genus Quiscalus – true grackles (5 living species, 1 recently extinct)
- Genus Agelaioides – (2 species)
- Genus Molothrus – true cowbirds (5 species, includes Scaphidura)
- Genus Icterus – New World orioles (25-30 species)
- Genus Amblycercus – yellow-billed cacique
- Genus Cacicus – true caciques (about 10 species)
- Genus Psarocolius – true oropendolas (about 10 species, includes Gymnostinops)
- Genus Gymnomystax – oriole blackbird
- Genus Pseudoleistes – marshbirds (2 species)
- Genus Amblyramphus – scarlet-headed blackbird
- Genus Hypopyrrhus – red-bellied grackle
- Genus Curaeus - austral blackbird
- Genus Anumara - Forbes's blackbird
- Genus Gnorimopsar – Chopi blackbird
- Genus Oreopsar – Bolivian blackbird
- Genus Lampropsar – velvet-fronted grackle
- Genus Macroagelaius (2 species)
Prehistoric icterid genera that have been described from Pleistocene fossil remains are Pandanaris from Rancho La Brea and Pyelorhamphus from Shelter Cave.
References
- ^ Chesser, R. Terry; Burns, Kevin J.; Cicero, Carla; Dunn, Jon L.; Kratter, Andrew W.; Lovette, Irby J.; Rasmussen, Pamela C.; Remsen, J. V.; Rising, James D. (2017). "Fifty-eighth supplement to the American Ornithological Society's Check-list of North American Birds". The Auk. 134 (3): 751–773. doi:10.1642/auk-17-72.1.
- ^ Lowther P (1975) "Geographic and Ecological Variation in the Family Icteridae" Wilson Bulletin 87 (4): 481-495
- ^ a b Parkes, Kenneth C. (1991), Forshaw, Joseph (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds, London: Merehurst Press, pp. 214–215, ISBN 1-85391-186-0
- ^ Prum, Richard O.; Snow, David W. (2003), "Cotingas", in Christopher Perrins (Ed.) (ed.), Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds, Firefly Books, pp. 432–433, ISBN 1-55297-777-3
- ^ Dolbeer, R & S Ickes (1994) "Red-winged Blackbird feeding preferences and response to wild rice treated with Portland cement or plaster" Vertebrate Pest Conference Proceedings collection Proceedings of the Sixteenth Vertebrate Pest Conference (1994) (W.S. Halverson& A.C. Crabb, Eds.) Univ. of Calif.:Davis.
- ^ Manu Peru Manu - Aves, Enjoy Corporation S. A., 2007, archived from the original on 2006-02-25, retrieved 2007-09-28
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suggested) (help) - ^ Muyuna Amazon Lodge, Iquitos - Peru, retrieved 2007-09-28. Click the link to Fauna and scroll forward one page.
- ^ Moyobamba - Peru, 2007, archived from the original on 2008-01-06, retrieved 2007-09-28
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suggested) (help). The source given is Moyobamba, apuntes turísticos y geográficos by Pedro Vargas Roja. - ^ Aves en Soritor - Distrito de soritor Moyobamba - Alto Mayo - San Martín - Peru, 2006, retrieved 2007-09-28
- Jaramillo, Alvaro & Burke, Peter (1999): New World Blackbirds. Christopher Helm, London. ISBN 0-7136-4333-1
- Price, J. Jordan & Lanyon, Scott M. (2002): A robust phylogeny of the oropendolas: Polyphyly revealed by mitochondrial sequence data. Auk 119(2): 335–348. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2002)119[0335:ARPOTO]2.0.CO;2 PDF fulltext
- Bosque de Protección Alto Mayo - Perfil de Parque - Biodiversidad, ParksWatch, 2004, retrieved 2007-09-28. English version (not containing the word paucar).
Further reading
- Powell, A.F.L.A.; Barker, F.K.; Lanyon, S.M.; Burns, K.J.; Klicka, J.; Lovette, I.J. (2014). "A comprehensive species-level molecular phylogeny of the New World blackbirds (Icteridae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 71: 94–112. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2013.11.009.
- Remsen, J.V. Jr.; Powell, A.F.L.A.; Schodde, R.; Barker, F.K.; Lanyon, S.M. (2016). "A revised classification of the Icteridae (Aves) based on DNA sequence data". Zootaxa. 4093 (2): 285–292. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4093.2.9.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/38px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png)
- New World Blackbirds (Icteridae) - videos, photos and sounds at the Internet Bird Collection
- Icteridae - Tree of Life Web Project