Tanager? (1 Viewer)

[texassue]

Photos were taken in late November near Costa Maya, Mexico. The tail seems longish for a tanager. ID?

 

[birdboybowley]

No relevant books to hand but check which orioles are likely.....

 

[Cristina_H]

Probably orange oriole (Icterus auratus). Too orange for Hooded (I. cucullatus), not stocky enough for Altamira (I. gularis).

 

[texassue]

Orange oriole looks like the bird I saw! Thanks so much. I was using the Whatbird.com search and see now that orange oriole isn't listed. None of the orioles there matched up.

 

[Tiraya]

It's like a really bright hooded oriole, so I guess orange oriole if that is what that looks like!

 

[Peter C.]

I'd be really cautious about this one ... I've seen both species in the Yucatan, and found it really tricky to distinguish one from the other.

In New World Blackbirds (Jaramillo & Burke) there is an illustration of the igneus race of Hooded, which looks a lot like this. The caption reads (in part): "Yucatan region of Mexico and Belize: This is the brightest orange race." This same book also says, of Orange Oriole, "note that unlike Hooded Oriole, the slender bill of this species is straight." I recall that, for us, a really good look at the bill was the only way we could tell them apart. (This bird's bill does look a bit a bit curved to me, in the flight picture.)

Peter

 

[njlarsen]

Do you have a photo that shows the color distribution on the back of the bird? For what it is worth, Hooded was my first impression.

Niels

 

[texassue]

Unfortunately, those are the only two photos I have.

 

[Peter C.]

Do you have a photo that shows the color distribution on the back of the bird? For what it is worth, Hooded was my first impression. Niels

Good point, which didn't occur to me at all!

Unfortunately, those are the only two photos I have.

The second photo just might show a dark upper back - really hard to tell where the wing ends, exactly, from that angle; but if that is the case, then it's not an Orange Oriole.

 

[Tero]

Wing bars make it look like a hooded oriole. I had one in Mexico, it took me 10 minutes of walking around pyramids with book in hand, only to find it was not a lifer bird. I only came home with less than 20 birds my only Mexico trip.