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Baltimore Oriole | Icterus galbula
Baltimoretroepiaal | Turpial de Baltimore | Corrupião-de-baltimore
The Baltimore Oriole is a North American breeder that migrates in the northern winter to Central America and north-western South America. In Colombia it is a common winter visitor; further south it quickly becomes scarcer. The male is orange and black, the female a duller orange-yellow.
Voice
In winter mainly a dry, rattling chatter and a two-note whistle; sometimes also fragments of the full, whistled song.
Recording: Bobby Wilcox — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
18–20 cm, with a pointed, bluish-grey bill. The male has a black head, throat and mantle, orange underparts, rump and shoulders, black wings with a white wing bar and white edgings, and a black tail with orange corners. The female is olive-brown above and yellowish orange to orange-yellow below, with two white wing bars; some females show black blotches on the head and throat. First-winter birds resemble the female.
Confusion species
Orchard Oriole Icterus spurius is smaller; the male is chestnut instead of orange, the female greenish yellow without an orange tone. Orange-crowned Oriole Icterus auricapillus has an orange head with a black face and no white wing bars. Female Summer Tanager Piranga rubra is plain yellowish, without wing bars, and has a thicker, pale bill.
Habitat
On the wintering grounds in forest edges, semi-open country with trees, shade coffee, gardens and parks, mainly between 500 and 2500 m, but also lower. It eats insects, fruit and much nectar from flowering trees such as Erythrina and Inga. It does not breed in the guide area.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Winter visitor, mainly October to April. In Colombia widespread in the Caribbean lowlands, the Magdalena and Cauca valleys and on the Andean slopes. In Ecuador scarce, mainly in the north. In Peru only a few records. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Breeds in eastern and central North America and winters from Mexico to Colombia and Venezuela.
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the winter months, check flowering Erythrina trees in coffee areas and forest edges in the Colombian Andes; birds often feed there together with tanagers and other winter visitors.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The North American population has declined over recent decades; on the wintering grounds the species also uses shade coffee and semi-open land.
Scientific name
Icterus galbula | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as C[oracias] Galbula; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Icterus was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. The genus name comes from Greek ikteros, 'jaundice'; the icterus was a yellow bird (probably the Eurasian Golden Oriole) whose sight was believed to cure jaundice. The species name is Latin galbula, the name of a small yellow bird, probably the Eurasian Golden Oriole. The specimen the first description was based on came from Virginia, United States.