Baltimore Oriole

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Baltimore Oriole

The Baltimore Oriole, Icterus galbula, is a small icterid blackbird

Icterid

The Icterids are a group of small to medium, often colourful passerine birds restricted to the New World. Most species have black as a predominant plumage colour, often enlivened by yellow, orange or red....
which is on average 18 cm long and weighs 34 g. This bird received its name from the fact that the male's colors resemble those on the coat-of-arms of Lord Baltimore

Lord Baltimore

Lord Baltimore can refer to*Baron Baltimore, an extinct title in the Peerage of Ireland, held by several including**Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore , the namesake of Baltimore, Maryland...
. The Baltimore Orioles

Baltimore Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball based in Baltimore. They are a member of the American League East of Major League Baseball's American League....
, a Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of play in American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between them since 1903 ....
team in Baltimore

Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore is an independent city and the largest city in the U.S. state of Maryland in the United States. Baltimore is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay....
, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic States of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia and the Washington, D.C. to the south and west, Pennsylvania to the north, and Delaware to the east....
, were named after this bird. It is also the state bird

List of U.S. state birds

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Encyclopedia

The Baltimore Oriole, Icterus galbula, is a small icterid blackbird

Icterid

Lord Baltimore

Baltimore Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball based in Baltimore. They are a member of the American League East of Major League Baseball's American League....
, a Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Baltimore, Maryland

Maryland

List of U.S. state birds

This is a list of U.S. state birds as designated by each state's legislature. The selection of state birds began in 1927, when the legislatures for Alabama, Florida, Maine, Missouri, Oregon, Texas and Wyoming selected their state birds....
of Maryland.

Adults have a pointed bill and white bars on the wings. The adult male is orange on the underparts, shoulder patch and rump. All of the rest of the male is black. The adult female is yellow-brown on the upper parts with darker wings, and dull orange on the breast and belly.

The male sings a loud flutey whistle that often gives away the bird's location before any sighting can be made. Click here to listen to the whistle of a Baltimore Oriole.

Distribution and ecology

The breeding habitats of these birds are the edges of deciduous

Deciduous

Deciduous means falling off at maturity or tending to fall off and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe....
and mixed woods across eastern North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
. The range of this bird overlaps with that of the similar Bullock's Oriole

Bullock's Oriole

The Bullock's Oriole, Icterus bullockii, is a small icterid. At one time, this species and the Baltimore Oriole were considered to be a single species, the Northern Oriole....
in the midwest, and the two species are sometimes considered to be conspecific under the name Northern Oriole because they form fertile hybrids.

These birds migrate

Bird migration

Bird migration refers to the regular seasonal journeys undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather....
in flocks to southern Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
, Central America

Central America

Central America is a central geography region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmus portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast....
and northern South America

South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
. Some birds may remain near feeders in winter.

The Baltimore Oriole's nest is a tightly woven pouch located on the end of a branch, hanging down on the underside.

The Baltimore Oriole is a rare vagrant to western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe refers to the countries in the western most half of Europe. This concept has had different meanings, political and cultural as well as geographical issues have influenced the area....
, and there are a couple of British

Great Britain

Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the List of islands by area, and the largest in Europe. With a population of 58.9 million people it is List of islands by population....
records of birds wintering near garden

Garden

A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials....
feeders, including one in Oxford

Oxford

Oxford is a City status in the United Kingdom, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. It has a population of 151,000. The rivers River Cherwell and River Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre....
in December 2003. Perhaps the most remarkable record was the incident occurring on 7th and 8th of October, 2001. On this date, in Baltimore

Baltimore, County Cork

Baltimore is located in western County Cork, Munster, Ireland. Baltimore is the principle village of the parish of Rath and the Islands, the southern most parish in Ireland....
, Co. Cork

County Cork

County Cork is the most southerly and the largest of the modern counties of Republic of Ireland. Cork is nicknamed "The Rebel County", as a result of the support of the townsmen of Cork in 1491 for Perkin Warbeck, a pretender to the throne of England during the Wars of the Roses....
, Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland is an Island country in north-western Europe. The modern Sovereignty state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned by the British on 3 May 1921....
, the first record of this species in Ireland was made. Baltimore Orioles forage in tree

TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
s and shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is a horticulture rather than strictly Botany category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m tall....
s, also making short flight

Flight

Flight is the process by which an object moves either through the air, or movement beyond earth's atmosphere , by aerodynamically generating Lift , propulsion or Lighter than air using buoyancy, or by simple ballistic movement....
s to catch insect

Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s. They mainly eat insects, berries

Berry

In everyday English, a berry is a broad term for any small edible fruit. Most berries are juicy, round or semi-oblong, brightly coloured, sweet or sour, and don't have a stone or pit....
and nectar, and are often seen sipping at hummingbird

Hummingbird

Hummingbirds are birds in the family Trochilidae, and are endemic to the Americas. They can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings 15?200 times per second ....
feeders. Oriole feeders contain essentially the same food as hummingbird feeders, but are designed for orioles, and are orange

Orange (colour)

The color orange occurs between red and yellow in the visible Optical spectrum at a wavelength of about 585 ? 620 nanometre, and has a hue of 30? in HSV colour space....
instead of red

Red

Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 625?740 Nanometer....
and have larger perch

Perch

Perca is the genus of fish referred to as perch or, sometimes, yellow perch, a group of freshwater fish belonging to the family Percidae....
es. Baltimore Orioles are also fond of halved orange

Orange (fruit)

An orange?specifically, the sweet orange?is the citrus Citrus sinensis and its fruit. The orange is a Hybrid of ancient cultivated origin, possibly between pomelo and tangerine ....
s, grape jelly and, in their winter quarters, the red aril

Aril

An aril is any specialized outgrowth from the funiculus that covers or is attached to the seed. It is sometimes applied to any appendage or thickening of the seed coat in flowering plants, such as the edible parts of the mangosteen and pomegranate fruit, or the mace of the nutmeg seed....
s of Gumbo-limbo (Bursera simaruba).

Footnotes

External links

- Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
- South Dakota Birds and Birding
on the Internet Bird Collection