The yellow-rumped marshbird (''Pseudoleistes guirahuro'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family

Icteridae Icterids () or New World blackbirds make up a family, the Icteridae (), of small to medium-sized, often colorful, New World passerine birds. Most species have black as a predominant plumage color, often enlivened by yellow, orange, or red. The ...

. It is a medium-sized bird found in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

, and

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

, where its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are dry

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

s, and pastureland.

Description

The yellow-rumped marshbird is named for its yellow belly, flanks, thighs, and rump. Its head is blackish in color; its breast, back, and wings are blackish brown. The species exhibits slight

size dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The conditio ...

, with males weighing on average 91.2 g and females weighing on average 81.9 g.

Distribution and habitat

The yellow-rumped marshbird is found in southeastern Brazil, eastern Paraguay, northern Uruguay, and the

Misiones Misiones (, ''Missions'') is one of the 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the northeastern corner of the country in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by Paraguay to the northwest, Brazil to the north, east and south, and Corrientes P ...

and Corrientes provinces of northeastern Argentina. Its range in Brazil overlaps with that of the

brown-and-yellow marshbird The brown-and-yellow marshbird (''Pseudoleistes virescens'') is a species of bird in the family Icteridae. It is found in the Pampas and north to the Paraguayan border and Rio Grande do Sul, where its natural habitats are swamp A swamp is a f ...

. It is most commonly found in shrubby marsh or moist grasslands and avoids treeless habitats.

Ecology

The yellow-rumped marshbird feeds on ground arthropods and small vertebrates. Marshbirds are

gregarious Sociality is the degree to which individuals in an animal population tend to associate in social groups (gregariousness) and form cooperative societies. Sociality is a survival response to evolutionary pressures. For example, when a mother wasp ...

and form flocks of 10-20 birds for most of the year. From September through November, single marshbird pairs can be observed, indicating the beginning of the breeding cycle. One individual will gather nest materials, inspect nest sites, and build the nest, while the other produces short songs. After eggs are laid, three to four adult marshbirds can be observed to guard the nest and bring food to chicks, indicating that yellow-rumped marshbirds are regular

cooperative breeders Cooperative breeding is a social system characterized by alloparental care: offspring receive care not only from their parents, but also from additional group members, often called helpers. Cooperative breeding encompasses a wide variety of group s ...

References

External links

Yellow-rumped marshbird videos

yellow-rumped marshbird The yellow-rumped marshbird (''Pseudoleistes guirahuro'') is a species of bird in the family Icteridae. It is a medium-sized bird found in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, where its natural habitats are dry savanna, swamps, and pasturela ...

Birds of Argentina Birds of Brazil Birds of Paraguay Birds of Uruguay Birds of the Pantanal

Taxa named by Louis Pierre Vieillot Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Icteridae-stub