June 5, 2022 - Baltimore Orioles
Read MoreToday, class, we’re going to study Baltimore Orioles. (Oops, I slipped back into my "teacher mode".) Because Orioles have such variable plumage, they provide a unique opportunity for identifying individual birds. Adult males, like this one, are no help because they mostly all look alike. However, I have seen two adult males at our feeder at once, so I know we have at least two of them.
It's the females and immature males that have such distinctive looks. I’m not even going to guess whether the rest of these photos show females or males. If one of you birders have some clues for telling them apart, I’d really like to hear from you. This bird is the palest of the Orioles coming to our feeders. It has a pale orange face, throat, and undertail feathers with a white area on its flanks. There is only a little bit of dark spotting on its head. Let’s call this Oriole A.
This bird was seen out along our driveway, not at the feeders. It has orange and white underneath and some dark spotting on its head so it could be Oriole A. The head looks darker than Oriole A, so I’m going to call this one Oriole D. Also note that it is not eating jelly, but it’s exploring the emerging leaves from this tree. Perhaps it is eating pollen, or maybe it’s finding an insect among the leaves.
This looks like Oriole B with a piece of grass that will be used in making its nest. The online resource “Birds of the World” says that the female is generally the sole nest builder. So, we could assume this is a female. However, we know that in nature, there are always exceptions.
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Linda Russell
on June 5, 2022Nice bird study, Earl! I have no idea which of those A-F birds are males or females, but it is interesting to note their differences. We have a male that keeps coming to our hummingbird feeder, despite the fact that I have plenty of jelly and oranges not too far away.