Shiny Cowbird
Molothrus bonariensis (Gmelin, JF, 1789)
Icteridae — Oropendolas, New World Orioles, Blackbirds
Shiny Cowbird, Molothrus bonariensis, is a passerine of the Icteridae family that breeds across much of South America, from Costa Rica to southern Chile and south-eastern Argentina, and also occurs in the Caribbean and rarely in the south-eastern USA. It is linked with open country, including land altered by farming and forest clearance. Its range has spread north since 1900. Adults are sexually dimorphic, with males black and glossed with purple-blue, while females are smaller and brown, sometimes paler below, with a longer, finer bill and a flatter head.
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Icteridae — Oropendolas, New World Orioles, Blackbirds
- Breeding range
- North America, South America: se USA (rare), Caribbean, Costa Rica to c Chile and sc Argentina
