Crested Oropendola

About the Crested Oropendola

The crested oropendola (Psarocolius decumanus), also known as the cornbird, is a species of bird in the family Icteridae, the oropendolas, New World orioles, and New World blackbirds. It is found in Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, and every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay. It is "[u]ndoubtedly overall the commonest and most widespread oropendola".

The crested oropendola was formally described in 1769 with the binomial Xanthornis decumanus. Some authors placed it in genus Ostinops before it was assigned to its present Psarocolius. The crested oropendola's further taxonomy is unsettled. The IOC, the Clements taxonomy, and AviList assign it these four subspecies:

P. d. melanterus (Todd, 1917) P. d. insularis (Dalmas, 1900) P. d. decumanus (Pallas, 1769) P. d. maculosus (Chapman, 1920) However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) does not recognize P. d. maculosus but includes it within P. d. decumanus. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Birds of the World states that DNA data do not support P. d. maculosus as a defined subspecies but does include its description and range in its species account... Wikipedia →