FAMILY ICTERIDAE 



337 



Resident. Locally common in lowlands of the Caribbean slope in 

 Bocas del Toro, less common farther east to the Canal Zone. It occurs 

 as far north as eastern Mexico. In Bocas del Toro it has been recorded 

 at Sixaola (Peters, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 71, 1931, p. 343), 

 Zegla, on the Teribe River (specimen collected by Austin Smith on 

 May 16, 1927, now in the Havemeyer Collection at the Peabody Mu- 

 seum, New Haven, Connecticut), Almirante, and at Changuinola and 

 Isla de Colon, in Almirante Bay. Eisenmann states that "it seems to 

 reach its regular southern limit in this area, although there are a few 

 records from the Caribbean coast of the Canal Zone" (Condor, 1957, 

 p. 257) . In March 1952, 1 saw several at El Uracillo, Code, and Chilar, 

 Colon. The Montezuma Oropendola was collected in the Canal Zone 

 region by McLeannan (Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Amer., Aves, 

 vol. 1 (pt. 52), 1886, p. 438) during the 19th century, but was not 

 recorded there again until 1964 when N. G. Smith (in litt.) reported 

 a colony in the Escobal Road area; in January 1969 Smith found a 

 colony of 2 males and 12 females nesting in a big tree in a cow pasture 

 on the Achiote Road southeast of the town of Achiote. This species 

 can now be seen regularly on the Achiote and Escobal Roads and it has 

 wandered to the Pacific side in the Rodman area of the southwestern 

 section of the Canal Zone (Ridgely, 1976, p. 306). A specimen taken 

 by M. J. Kelly in March 1921 at the Gaspar Savanna, near Chepo, 

 eastern Province of Panama is now in the Everhart Museum, Scranton, 

 Pennsylvania. Smith also reports (in litt. to Eisenmann) seeing a flock 

 on April 9, 1975, above Santa Fe, Veraguas, at about 700 m on the 

 Pacific slope and also over the Continental Divide. 



Figure 27. — Montezuma Oropendola, Chacarero de Montezuma, Psarocolius 



montezuma. 



