From Opus

Photo by steve messick

Icterus spurius

Includes: Ochre Oriole

[edit] Identification

9-10 in. Chestnut underneath, black head, back, tail, and wings, thin straight bill. Females and immatures are olive-green above with two white wing-bars and yellowish underparts; immature males have a dark throat.

[edit] Similar Species

Female. Photo by bobsofpa
Fort DeSoto Park, Florida, USA, April 2008

Female/young Hooded Orioles can be quite similar, but notice they have a slimmer, longer, more decurved bill and a graduated tail.

[edit] Distribution

Eastern United States from eastern Montana and eastern New Mexico east and north to southern Michigan, central New York, and Massachusetts south into central Mexico; absent from southern Florida. Recent results suggest that at least part of the US population after having bred in early parts of summer migrates to north-western Mexico where a second round of breeding takes place.

Winters in Central America south to Colombia and Venezuela. Rare to casual vagrant in western United States.

[edit] Taxonomy

Two subspecies accepted:

• I. s. spurius breeds from southeast Canada to Mexico, winters to Colombia and Venezuela
• I. s. fuertesi on the Caribbean coast of Mexico

fuertesi is sometimes split as full species, Ochre Oriole or Fuerte's Oriole.

[edit] Habitat

Trees along streams, rivers and lakes, and on farms and parklands.

[edit] Behaviour

The diet includes insects, berries and nectar; also flower parts.

They build a deep, hanging cup nest, although woven of grass fibres, hidden within dense foliage, often in a dense cluster of trees. The young leave the nest 11 to 14 days after hatching.

[edit] References

1. Clements, James F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2007. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801445019
2. Paper describing migration to second breeding area

• List of references

[edit] External Links