Black-headed Oriole (1 Viewer)

Discussion thread for Black-headed Oriole.

Are the Black headed Oriole and a Black Hooded Oriole one and the same? They look very similar, but seem to have different taxonomy (Latin) names.

Hi Vijay

This is one of those cases where there seems to be several birds with similar names.

Black Hooded Oriole Oriolus xanthornus has an alternative name of Black Headed Oriole.

However, looking at Avibase, you'll see that there's a long list of birds called Black-headed Oriole : from Abyssinian to Western LOL.

Hope this helps a bit... I'm sure someone will be along soon with more information for you to help clarify it a bit more.

D

Again, not really an expert but.... The Black-headed Oriole complex seems to include Black-tailed (Montane Black-headed) Oriole (Oriolus percivali), Western Black-headed Oriole (Oriolus brachyrhynchus), and African Black-headed Oriole (Oriolus larvatus). All three of these are recognized by Clements as full species, look fairly similar, and occur in Africa. Black-hooded Oriole (Oriolus xanthornus) is an Asian species which also looks a bit similar.

The only two I have photos of are Black-tailed and African Black-hooded, but you can see the differences in wing pattern, back colour, and somewhat in the outer tail feathers.

Cheers,
Benji

PS - Both photos were taken in Kenya.