Bullock's Oriole

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Icteridae

Genus: Icterus

Species: bullockii

**Audio Below**

Description

  • Length: 9"
  • Wing span: 12"
  • Weight: 1.3 oz (36 grams)
  • Medium sized songbird
  • Orang to yellow overall with a thin, straight, pointed bill
  • Males: vary from birght orange to dark bright yellow, black throat, cap, eye-line and back. Orange to yellow underparts and rump. Black wings with large white patches on primaries with a black tipped tail
  • Females: Dull yellow head, face, and neck. Pale gray underparts and slightly darker back with black and white wings. Dull yellow rump and tail.
  • Juveniles: resemble the adult female but is generally brighter yellow below, and usually lacks black feathers **last 2 photos to the right are adult females
  • First year males: resemble the adult male but more yellow and it lacks the black cap and back as in the adult male **3rd photo to the right is a first year male

Factoids:

  • The Bullock's Oriole is one of the only Oriole species to have learned how to utilize hummingbird feeders by using their pointed beaks to help them drink the nectar fromt he feeder
  • A bird of open woodlands in the American West, the Bullock's Oriole is especially fond of tall trees along rivers and streams
  • The Bullock's Oriole hybridizes extensively with the Baltimore Oriole where their ranges overlap in the Great Plains. The two species were considered the same for a while and called the Northern Oriole, but recently, they were separated again. Molecular studies of the oriole genus indicate that the two species are not very closely related.
  • The Bullock's Oriole's nest is not always placed in territory where the male advertises
  • Both sexes of Bullock's Oriole sing, but the males and females sing different songs. The song of the female is similar to that of the male, but it ends differently and with harsher notes. Early in nesting period, and before and during nest-building, the female sings regularly, and may sing more than the male

About the Photos: (click on link to see this information)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All photographs and audio clips are ©Jamie Mullin 2006

Sources: Cornell Lab of Ornithology & The Sibley Guide to Birds.

May 26th, 2006 #24