Bronzed Cowbird

The bronzed cowbird was another lifer I got at Finca El Pilar outside Antigua, Guatemala. My guide, Bobby, pointed to it high in a tree just as we were pulling in to enter the gated, private, nature sanctuary. I was thinking I'd already seen this species before, but I was confusing it with the shiny cowbird I've seen in both Colombia and Ecuador. 

I saw the nominate subspecies, aeneus, which is found in southern Texas and from eastern Mexico to central Panama. The female is dull black with a brown underbelly and brown eyes. The male has green-bronze, gloss-black plumage with red eyes in breeding season (it is sometimes known as the "red-eyed cowbird") and brown otherwise. The male also has an erectile ruff on the back and sides of the neck (see my second photo above). 

Illustration of a female, ssp. aeneus, from Birds of the World. 

Illustration of a male, ssp. aeneus, from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World.