Cacicus cela
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The yellow-rumped cacique (Cacicus cela) is a passerine bird in the New World family Icteridae. It breeds in much of northern South America from Panama, Venezuela and Trinidad south to Peru, Bolivia and central Brazil. However, they have been sighted as far north as Nayarit state in Mexico.
The yellow-rumped cacique was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Parus cela. Why Linnaeus picked this specific epithet is uncertain but it may be shorthand for the Ancient Greek kelainos meaning "black". Linnaeus mistakenly specified the Habitat as in Indiis (India). The type location was designated as Suriname by the Austrian ornithologist Carl Eduard Hellmayr in 1906. The yellow-rumped cacique is now placed in the genus Cacique that was introduced by the Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1799.
Three subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 2 | Amacayacu National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 3 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 4 | Anavilhanas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 7 | Soberanía National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 8 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 9 | Machalilla National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 10 | San Lorenzo Protected Forest | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 11 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 12 | Utría National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 13 | Henri Pittier National Park | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 14 | Chapada dos Guimarães National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 15 | Darién National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 16 | Podocarpus National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 17 | Tayrona National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 18 | Chagres National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 19 | Brownsberg Nature Park | 🇸🇷 Suriname | |
| 20 | Parque Natural Metropolitano | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 21 | Amboró National Park | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 22 | Big Cypress National Preserve | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 23 | Los Nevados National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | National Zoological Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | California Academy of Sciences | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | North Carolina Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Zoo Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Bronx Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Xcaret | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 8 | Caldwell Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Woodland Park Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | San Francisco Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 11 | Moody Gardens | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 12 | Houston Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 13 | Cologne Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 14 | Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic Garden | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 15 | Vogelpark Avifauna | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | |
| 16 | Aviario Nacional de Colombia | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 17 | Tracy Aviary | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 18 | Dallas World Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 19 | National Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 20 | Cologne Zoo Aquarium | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 21 | Vogelpark Turnersee | 🇦🇹 Austria |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-rumped Cacique sighting in Darién National Park on a given day, based on 24 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 218th most-seen of the 397 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March–May, July, September and December–January
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-rumped Cacique in Darién National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February, June, August and October–November, the lowest months.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-rumped Cacique sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
15th of 23
Of the 23 parks where we can rate Yellow-rumped Cacique sightings, Darién National Park ranks 15th at under 5%. The best odds are in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (Ecuador, about 70%), Amacayacu National Natural Park (Colombia, about 60%) and Yasuní National Park (Ecuador, about 60%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-rumped Cacique is recorded against all the birds logged in Darién National Park (24 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
