Donacobius | Donacobiidae

Donacobiussen | Donacobios

A family with a single species, the Black-capped Donacobius, a South American bird that in the region occurs only in eastern Panama, in marshes, reedbeds, waterside vegetation and floating mats of plants. It was formerly regarded as a mockingbird or a wren, but forms a family of its own related to the grassbirds and reed warblers of Africa and Asia. It is a slender bird with a black head, brown back, warm buff underparts, a long graduated tail with white tips and a bright yellow eye. On the side of the neck is a patch of bare orange-yellow skin that swells when the bird sings. Pairs often perch side by side at the top of the reeds and sing in duet with loud whistling and rasping notes, wagging their tails and bobbing towards each other. They eat insects and other small invertebrates gathered from the vegetation near water. Young from an earlier brood often help to raise later ones. The nest is a deep cup of grass and plant fibres placed in reeds or bushes above water.