Short answers, pulled from the story.
The name Icteridae means "the jaundiced ones," derived from the Greek word íkteros, referring to the prominent yellow feathers found on many species in the family. Irish zoologist Nicholas Vigors first formally introduced the family group in 1825 as the subfamily Icterina.
The family Icteridae contains 108 species divided into 30 genera. The species list is maintained by Frank Gill, Pamela Rasmussen, and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee.
The largest icterid is the Amazonian oropendola, whose males measure 52 centimeters and weigh about 550 grams. The smallest is the orchard oriole, with females averaging 15 centimeters in length and 18 grams in weight.
Icterids are only distantly related to both the Old World common blackbird, which is a thrush, and the Old World orioles, despite sharing similar common names. A 2019 phylogenetic analysis by Carl Oliveros and collaborators found Icteridae to be sister to the Icteriidae, and together those two families are sister to the New World warbler family Parulidae.
Gaping is a skull adaptation that allows icterids to open their bills with force, rather than only closing them, enabling them to pry open bark, fruit skins, and other concealed food sources. Oropendolas and caciques use gaping to access fruit pulp, while the Jamaican blackbird uses it to pry under tree bark in the ecological role filled elsewhere by woodcreepers.
The Jamaican blackbird, yellow-shouldered blackbird, and St. Lucia oriole are all threatened by habitat loss. The tricolored blackbird of California is threatened by both habitat loss and destruction of its nests.