Subtropical cacique

The scarlet-rumped cacique (Cacicus uropygialis) is a passerine bird species in the New World blackbird family Icteridae. This species has sometimes been split into two species: the scarlet-rumped cacique (Cacicus microrhynchus) and the subtropical cacique (Cacicus uropygialis).

The scarlet-rumped cacique is sexually dimorphic like many Icteridae, though it mainly concerns size in this species. Males are 23 cm (9 in) long and weigh 68 g (2.4 oz), while the female is 20 cm (8 in) long and weighs 53 g (1.9 oz);

This cacique is a slim long-winged bird, with a relatively short tail, blue eyes, and a pale yellow pointed bill. It has mainly black plumage, apart from a scarlet patch on the lower back and upper rump. The female is smaller and a duller black than the male, and the juvenile bird has a brownish tone to the plumage and a brownish-orange rump.

The song of these birds is a pleasant wheee-whee-whee-whee-wheet, but the Pacific cacique has a descending melancholy wheeo-wheeo-wheeo-wheeo, while C. m. microrynchus in the narrowest sense has a burry pleeo; C. m. pacificus has a sweeter keeo or a shree.