Yellow-hooded Blackbird (Chrysomus icterocephalus)

Identification & Behavior: ~17.5 cm. (7 in). The male Yellow-hooded Blackbird is solid black with a bright yellow hood. Immature males are dusky gray instead of black. The female has a similar color structure as the male but the black is replaced by gray and the hood by yellowish and gray. Young males are dusky gray instead of black before they attain the jet black color. In both sexes, the iris is dark. The tail is square. The Yellow-hooded  Blackbird favors march and scrub vegetation around rivers and other bodies of water. It superficially resembles an Oriole Blackbird but the distribution of yellow and black colors are different.

Status: The Yellow-hooded Blackbird is generally uncommon in marshy and scrub vegetation bordering large Amazonian Rivers in Loreto and Ucayali. It also occurs at a few locations in Lima as an introduced species. The Yellow-hooded Blackbird also occurs in Co and Br.

Name in Spanish: Tordo de Capucha Amarilla.

Sub-species: Yellow-hooded Blackbird (Chrysomus icterocephalus icterocephalus) (Linnaeus), 1766.

Meaning of Name: Chrysomus: Gr. Khrusos= gold and sōma, sōmatos= body.
icterocephalus: Gr. Ikteros= jaundice-yellow and kephalos= headed.

See more of the Family Icteridae