From Opus

Current revision

Photo by Glen Tepke
Salineno, Texas, USA, March 2005

Icterus gularis

[edit] Identification

Adult, sexes virtually identical

• Large, heavily built (largest oriole in the USA)
• Mostly orange and black
• Very deep-based bill
  • Straight culmen
  • Pale flash at base of lower mandible short
• Black bib "attaches" to corner of bill
• Black lores
• Black tail and mantle
• Black wings
  • Lesser coverts same color as body
  • tip of greater coverts, base of primaries and some feather edges white

Immature bird. Photo by njlarsen
Salineno, Texas, USA, January 2012

Immature (1^st basic plumage) is similar to adult but:

• Less strongly orange
• Mantle often greenish or greenish-greyish
• Lesser coverts with white tips producing a second wing bar

[edit] Distribution

North and Central America: found from extreme southern Texas and north-eastern Mexico south to Nicaragua.

[edit] Taxonomy

Polytypic. Consists of six subspecies. ^[1]

• I. g. tamaulipensis:

• Southern Texas (lower Rio Grande Valley) to south-eastern Mexico (Campeche)

• I. g. flavescens:

• Coastal south-western Mexico (Guerrero)

• I. g. yucatanensis:

• South-eastern Mexico (Yucatán Peninsula), Cozumel Island and extreme northern Belize

• I. g. gularis:

• Arid tropical southern Mexico (Oaxaca) to Guatemala and El Salvador

• I. g. troglodytes:

• Southern Mexico (extreme southern Chiapas) and Pacific slope of Guatemala

• I. g. gigas:

• Interior southern Guatemala to Honduras and west-central Nicaragua

[edit] Habitat

Nest with adult bird next to it
Photo by njlarsen
Las Coloradas Rd, Yucatan, Mexico, May 2012

Nests in open woodlands.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Breeding

Seasonally monogamous and may be for life. They are almost always seen in pairs.

Nest is a very long woven pouch, attached to the end of a horizontal tree branch. Nest building starts as early as March usually producing one brood per season. However, more southerly populations can produce a second brood. In the event that they brood a second time, a second nest is always built.

[edit] Diet

This bird forages high in trees, sometimes in the undergrowth. They mainly eat insects and berries.

[edit] Flight

Swift, strong flight on rapid wing beats.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.

• List of references

[edit] External Links