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Black-Headed Oriole | Oriolus larvatus
Maskerwielewaal | Oropéndola Enmascarada
Black-Headed Oriole is the common oriole of southern Africa and one of the best-known sounds of the bushveld: a liquid, bubbling whistle from the crown of a tall tree. The bird itself is golden yellow with a jet-black head and a coral-red bill, yet despite those bright colours it is surprisingly hard to find among the leaves.
Voice
A full, liquid, bubbling whistle such as pooo-dle-oo or hoo-hoo-wee-oo, often with variations in one series. Also a hard, nasal kweer or nyeeh as a contact and alarm call. It sings all year, most in spring and summer.
Recording: Walter Wallner — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
24–25 cm. Head, throat and upper breast are glossy black; the rest of the body is bright golden yellow, the mantle slightly greener. The wings are black with white and grey edges to the secondaries and tertials and a small white patch on the primary coverts. The tail is olive-yellow in the centre, the outer feathers black with yellow tips. The bill is coral pink to red and the eye red. The sexes are alike. Juveniles have a dull black, olive-streaked head, a throat streaked black on yellowish white and a blackish bill.
Confusion species
African Golden Oriole Oriolus auratus and Eurasian Golden Oriole Oriolus oriolus lack the black head; females and young of those species are streaked below, which can cause confusion with a young Black-Headed Oriole, but that always shows a dark hood. Green-Headed Oriole Oriolus chlorocephalus of the Mozambican mountains has a green head and blue-grey wings. In northern Angola, Western Oriole Oriolus brachyrynchus and Black-Winged Oriole Oriolus nigripennis are smaller and confined to rainforest.
Habitat
Broadleaved woodland and miombo, riverine forest, forest edges, coastal forest and planted trees, including gardens and parks with tall trees in towns. It forages in the canopy for caterpillars, other insects, nectar and fruit, and is fond of figs.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Widespread in the north and east of the region: in South Africa from the Eastern Cape through KwaZulu-Natal to Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng, and further in Eswatini, all of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia, northern and eastern Botswana, north-eastern Namibia (Kavango and Zambezi) and most of Angola outside the arid south-west. Beyond the region north to Kenya, South Sudan and southern DR Congo.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Easy to hear year-round in woodland and green suburbs in the east, for example in Kruger, KwaZulu-Natal or Harare. Follow the song to a tall tree and wait for it to change branches; in flowering coral trees Erythrina and figs it often comes close.
Conservation status
Not threatened; common and increased in parts of South Africa thanks to planted trees in towns and on farms. Local declines through clearance of woodland and riverine forest, but no large-scale threats.
Scientific name
Oriolus larvatus | Lichtenstein, 1823
Lichtenstein described the species in 1823 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Oriolus was introduced in 1766 by Linnaeus. Oriolus is medieval Latin for the Golden Oriole; the name is onomatopoeic, echoing the Eurasian Golden Oriole's melodious calls. larvatus is Latin for 'masked', for the black head contrasting like a mask with the yellow. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cape Province, South Africa.