Band-tailed Cacique

Male band-tailed caciques average about 33 cm (13 in) long and 118 g (4.2 oz). Females average about 24.5 cm (9.6 in) long and 75 g (2.6 oz). The sexes have essentially the same plumage though females are a duller black than males. Adults are mostly velvety black. Their crown, nape, and upper back are chestnut and their wings have a bluish gloss. Their central tail feathers are black and the rest are yellow with black tips. They have a pale blue iris and black legs and feet. Their bill can be ivory-colored with a dusky wash on the tip or have a dusky gray maxilla and an ivory mandible.

The band-tailed cacique is a bird of the far western Amazon Basin. Its range includes extreme southern Amazonas Department in far southern Colombia and scattered locations in eastern Ecuador. In Peru it is found through most of Loreto and the northern half of Ucayali departments and slightly beyond their borders to the west. Its range continues east from Peru into the western parts of far western Brazil's Amazonas and Acre states. The band-tailed cacique primarily inhabits várzea forest along rivers and islands in them. It has been reported in terra firme forest near rivers. In elevation it is found below about 100 m (300 ft) in Colombia and below about 300 m (1,000 ft) in Ecuador and Brazil.

The band-tailed cacique's diet is known to include caterpillars and fruits and is assumed to also include other arthropods, small vertebrates, and nectar. It usually forages in small groups below the forest's canopy but has been noted in much greater numbers as members of mixed-species feeding flocks.