A beautiful, variable song of whistles and guttural notes
announces the presence of the Orchard Oriole in nearly every open woodland in
Mississippi. This striking bird, the
smallest of all North American orioles, arrives in spring during the first half
of April and is soon abundant in orchards and stands of young trees—which is
the habitat of many people’s yards!
Orchard Orioles can be somewhat difficult to see as they skulk in dense
vegetation or sing from the tops of tall trees, but they are certainly worth
watching. While many species of birds
simply pair up and retreat to the woods to nest singly, chasing off other
members of the same species, Orchard Orioles have much more interesting social
behaviors. More often than not, there
will be several individuals on one property, and they will usually stay in that
area until the end of summer.
Soon after they arrive in the state, the male orioles begin
singing, usually from high perches. Many
of these birds are males in their first spring and are greenish-yellow with
white wing bars and black throats. Some
may show traces of chestnut feathering as well.
The males two years or older are striking with their rich chestnut
underparts and extensive black hoods.
Instead of the upper white wing bars of the younger males, they have
chestnut shoulder patches.
The more secretive females are predominantly
greenish-yellow, darker on the upperparts and have white wing bars on dark
wings. At first glance they might
resemble warblers, but they have longer tails and bills than any warblers and
are larger than any warbler other than the Yellow-breasted Chat. They spend most of their time hidden in the
vegetation where, after they pair up, nest building begins.
No mating displays of the Orchard Oriole are known. (A good reason to watch their behavior carefully this year: you might notice something that has never been seen before!) But nesting is fairly well documented, even though the nest can be very difficult to find, concealed as it is in the foliage. The female, with a little help from the male, constructs a pouchlike nest of grasses suspended from a forked limb 4-50 feet up in a deciduous tree. After the nest is built, the female lays 3-5 pale eggs marked with brown. Both the male and female incubate, and they obviously don’t mind other pairs nesting close by. Last year I saw three pairs on our wooded back six acres in early summer, and in Louisiana 114 pairs were once found nesting on one 7-acre tract!
It takes about 12 days for the eggs to hatch, and then the
virtually helpless young are fed by both parents. They leave the nest after 11-14 days. Often the parent birds will divide the group
of fledglings and care for them separately, another interesting aspect of
oriole behavior. Only one brood per year
is produced, but family groups will remain together until fall when they depart
for their wintering grounds from central Mexico to northern South America.
With their sharp, slightly-curved bills, Orchard Orioles are
obviously insect eaters and also feed heavily on fruit. In August of last year I saw a whole family
group in a fig tree, snatching pieces of ripe fig and probably the insects
attracted to the fruit, as well. Some
people have success attracting orioles to nectar or halved oranges. You might want to try this; it could be the
key to luring orioles out in the open for easy viewing.
Sadly, the Orchard Oriole is declining in some areas,
especially western North America, in part due to cowbird parasitization. But since it seems to be holding on very well
in the Southeast, you can expect this fascinating oriole to keep on delighting
you for years to come.
Source:
The
Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Guide to Birds of North America, Version 3.
