Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Passeriformes > Icteridae > Molothrus > Molothrus oryzivorus

Molothrus oryzivorus (Giant Cowbird)

Synonyms: Molothrus oryzivora; Oriolus oryzivorus; Scaphidura oryzivora

Wikipedia Abstract

The giant cowbird (Molothrus oryzivorus) is a large passerine bird in the New World family Icteridae. It breeds from southern Mexico south to northern Argentina, and on Trinidad and Tobago. It may have relatively recently colonised the latter island. It is associated with open woodland and cultivation with large trees, but is also the only cowbird that is found in deep forest. It is a quiet bird, particularly for an icterid, but the male has an unpleasant screeched whistle, shweeaa-tpic-tpic. The call is a sharp chek-chik. They are also very adept mimics.
View Wikipedia Record: Molothrus oryzivorus

Infraspecies

Molothrus oryzivorus impacificus
Molothrus oryzivorus impacifus
Molothrus oryzivorus oryzivorus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
1
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
11
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 3.43876
EDGE Score: 1.49038
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  182 grams
Female Weight [1]  156 grams
Male Weight [5]  212 grams
Weight Dimorphism [1]  33.3 %
Breeding Habitat [2]  Tropical evergreen forests
Wintering Geography [2]  Non-migrartory
Wintering Habitat [2]  Tropical evergreen forests
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Frugivore, Nectarivore
Diet - Fruit [3]  40 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  30 %
Diet - Nectar [3]  30 %
Forages - Canopy [3]  40 %
Forages - Mid-High [3]  10 %
Forages - Understory [3]  10 %
Forages - Ground [3]  40 %
Incubation [4]  12 days

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Atlantic Forest Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay No
Cerrado Brazil No
Mesoamerica Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama No
Tropical Andes Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela No
Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru No

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2017. Accessed on January 2018.
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 5Burton, PJK 1975. Passerine bird weights from Colombia and Panama, with some notes on “softpart” colours. Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. 95: 82–86.
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0