Subfamily XANTHOCEPHALINAE Remsen, Powell, Schodde, Barker & Lanyon, new subfamily

Type genus: Xanthocephalus Bonaparte, 1850 .

Diagnosis. Mostly black icterids in which adult male plumage has a distinctively conspicuous white patch in the primary coverts. Primary 9 as long or longer than primary 8 numbered outwards, a condition found elsewhere in Icteridae only in Dolichonyx and Molothrus oryzivorus .

Component genera: Xanthocephalus Bonaparte, 1850