Orchard Oriole

The Orchard Oriole is sexually dimorphic, though both sexes have the somewhat long, bluish-black bill typical of orioles. It is also the smallest oriole in North America.

Breeding males are dark chestnut orange below, with a wing patch of similar color. The head, breast, and upperparts are black.   Length: 7 in.  Wingspan: 9 in.

Females are dingy yellowish on the underparts, with dull, grayish upperparts, and two white wing bars on grayish wings.

Photograph © Alan Wilson.

None.

Juveniles resemble females. First spring males resemble adult females but have a black throat.

Orchard Orioles inhabit woodland edges, riparian areas, and brushy clearings.

Orchard Orioles eat insects, berries, and nectar.

Orchard Orioles forage within trees and shrubs, sometimes visiting flowers for nectar.

Orchard Orioles breed across the eastern and central U.S. They winter in Mexico south to South America. The population appears to be stable overall, though it has declined in some areas and increased in others.

Orchard Orioles are a late spring migrant and an early fall migrant, making their time in the U.S. each year relatively short.

Orchard Orioles often nest in the same tree as an Eastern Kingbird.

The song consists of a lively, jumbled sequence of notes. A soft “chet” call is given as well.

The Orchard Oriole’s nest is a hanging pouch of plant fibers and grass and is lined with finer materials. It is placed in a tree or shrub.

Number: Usually lay 4-5 eggs.
Color: Bluish-white with darker markings.

Incubation and fledging:
The young hatch at about 12-15 days, and fledge at about 11-14 days, though remaining dependent on the adults for some time.

Published by the Smithsonian Institution between the 1920s and the 1950s, the Bent life history series of monographs provide an often colorful description of the birds of North America. Arthur Cleveland Bent was the lead author for the series. The Bent series is a great resource and often includes quotes from early American Ornithologists, including Audubon, Townsend, Wilson, Sutton and many others.

Bent Life History for the Orchard Oriole – the common name and sub-species reflect the nomenclature in use at the time the description was written.

The origin of the name spurius, which is decidedly undeserved and inappropriate, is discussed at considerable length by Wilson (1832), who tells how a female Baltimore oriole was thought to be the male of this species; this error resulted in the name spurious, or bastard, Baltimore oriole, which at one time was applied to our orchard oriole; and the name spurius still clings to it .

The orchard oriole enjoys a wide distribution in the central and eastern United States, breeding from the northern tier of the Central States, extreme southern Ontario, and extreme southern New England, southward to northern Florida and the Gulf States. Its center of abundance during the breeding season seems to be in the States bordering on the Mississippi Valley, especially to the southward, where it is really abundant in some places. It is comparatively rare in the northern portions of its range, so very rare in southeastern Massachusetts that I have seen only one nest in over 60 years.

As its name implies, the orchard oriole shows a decided preference for orchards in rural districts near human dwellings, where apples, pears, or peaches are cultivated; and when these colorful trees are in bloom in spring, we are likely to find these orioles gleaning among the opening foilage or preparing to build their basket nests. But it is by no means confined to such habitats even in the breeding season, for it is equally at home in the shade trees about houses or along village streets or country roadsides. In the prairie regions it lives in the timber belts along the streams or in the tree claims about farms and ranches; and in the south it is especially common about the plantations and in the shade trees about the planter’s home. Everywhere it shuns the forests and the heavily wooded regions, preferring the open and cultivated lands, especially near human dwellings. In the north, where orchards are not as common as they were, the orchard oriole seems to find a satisfactory substitute in the nurseries, where trees and shrubs of many kinds are cultivated. And H. C. Oberholser (1938) writes: “One of the interesting and rather surprising ornithological experiences in southeastern Louisiana, particularly in the region of the Mississippi River Delta and the coastal areas west of that point, is to find the Orchard Oriole so common an inhabitant of the marshes, occurring even in the grasses and reeds as well as in the bushes and trees that fringe the bayous and ditches.”

Spring: Alexander F. Skutch writes to me: “The orchard oriole disappears from Central America during April. My latest record for Costa Rica is April 6, when a solitary male was seen at El General. In the Motagua Valley of Guatemala, where the species is so abundant during the winter, the last individual for the season, a female, was seen on April 21. Their sojourn here covers 9 of the 12 months.”

Alexander Wetmore (1943), while collecting birds in southern Vera Cruz, Mexico, observed a heavy migratory flight of these birds, of which he says: “During the end of March and early April I saw more orchard orioles near Tres Zapotes than I had observed in all my previous years of observation of this species in its northern home. Some days they fairly swarmed, so that it was necessary to scrutinize carefully every bird collected to avoid shooting them.”

These were probably birds that would migrate northward through eastern Texas and the western part of the Mississippi Valley. According to George F. Simmons (1925), the orchard oriole arrives in the Austin region around the middle of April, where it is also a common summer resident.

Some individuals, probably many, migrate straight northward across the Gulf of Mexico, from Yucatrin to Louisiana and other Gulf States at least as far cast as northwestern Florida. George H. Lowery, Jr. (1946), recorded an immature male that came aboard his ship on April 30, 1945, 94 miles south of the Louisiana coast and approximately halfway across the Gulf from the coasts of Texas and Florida; and he mentions two males and a female seen by Joseph C. Howell near the middle of the Gulf, May 3: 6, 1945 .

Francis M. Weston writes to me from Pensacola, Fla.: “The orchard oriole is an early migrant, usually arriving during the last week of March in northward flight across the Gulf of Mexico. Normally, it is common; but when incoming flights meet adverse weather conditions: rain, heavy fog or strong northerly winds: and several successive days’ arrivals are halted and weather-bound in this coastal area, they become unbelievably abundant. At such times, I have seen hundreds of orioles in city parks and gardens or in a single small patch of woods. Under these conditions, and when their sojourn happens to coincide with the bloom period of the black locust (Robiria pseudo-acacia), the orioles show marked preference for this species of tree. Whether they actually feed on the flower parts or are attracted by the insects that swarm in the scented blossoms, I do not know; but on April 15, 1934, I counted 40 orioles busily feeding in two locust trees that stood side by side in a city garden.

“On the first day that the weather becomes propitious for a continuation of the interrupted northward flight, the nonresident orioles prepare to leave. They become restless late in the afternoon and resort to the tops of the tallest trees, where their bright colors glow in the last, level rays of the setting sun. Frequent tentative starts are made by small groups, which circle a time or two and then return to their perches. The birds are still there when the light fails and the observer on the ground can no longer distinguish them against the darkening sky. The actual ‘take-off’ may come shortly after dark. Certainly, by morning not an oriole is left in a patch of woods that harbored hundreds the evening before.”

As a migrant in Cuba, according to Barbour (1923), “The Orchard Oriole appears occasionally in spring in company with Baltimore Orioles or alone. It seems possible that they are regular migrants, and have been overlooked among the native Orioles in immature dress.” Earle R. Greene (1946) reports it as a “fairly common spring migrant” along the lower Florida Keys from April 9 to 22. A. H. Howell (1932) says: “On the Tortugas, migrants were reported April 11, 1890, April 14, 1909 (abundant), and April 26 to 28, 1914. There is but one record from Key West: April 29, 1887.” He goes on to give a number of dates for the west coast of Florida, but none for the east coast, where this oriole seems to be an extremely rare migrant south of St. Johns County. From the above it appears that the orchard oriole advances from its tropical winter home on a broad front from eastern Mexico and Texas to the Gulf coast of Florida, diminishing in numbers in the latter region.

When the migrating birds leave the Gulf States, they advance northward and rather rapidly on a similar broad front, though more abundantly in the Mississippi Valley than on the Atlantic coast, reaching the northern limits of their breeding range early in May. In Missouri, according to Widmann (1907), the “first to arrive are the old males followed after a few days by the first females and the first males of the second year. It is from 1 to 2 weeks after the first males have come before their full strength is reached and their song heard everywhere.”

Nesting: Although there are a few scattered breeding records for Massachusetts, I have seen only one nest here. During the month of June 1915, a pair of orchard orioles built a nest and reared a brood of three young in Berklcy, about 8 miles from my home, in a farmyard and close to a house. The nest was suspended from the end of a long, drooping branch of an apple tree and fully 15 feet from the ground. It was well concealed among the leaves and was made almost wholly of freshly dried yellowish grasses, with a few leaves of the tree woven into it; it was deeply hollowed, thin-walled on the sides but with a thickly wadded bottom, and was lined with very, very fine white, silky, woolly substances. I collected the nest after the young had left it, but neither the old nor the young birds were ever seen again.

T. E. McMullen has sent me the data for four New Jersey nests, ranging from 6 feet up in an elder bush to 10 and 15 feet up in apple and pear trees, and for a North Carolina nest that was 20 feet from the ground in a maple. A. D. Du Bois’ notes record a nest found in Lake County, Ill., that “was about 8 feet from the ground, hanging at the end of a branch of a small, lop-sided apple tree in an old abandoned orchard on a hill. It was constructed of fresh grasses, gray-green in color, fragrant like new hay. The grasses appeared to have been green when first woven into the nest: a wonderfully woven cup, contracted at the top. This little deserted orchard of barely a dozen trees also hid the nests of kingbird, Baltimore oriole, catbird, robin, yellow warblers, chipping sparrows, a phoebe and a vireo.”

A. C. Reneau, Jr., has sent me his records of 23 nests of the orchard oriole, found near Independence, Kans., of which 8 were in elms, 8 in button-bushes, 5 in willows, and 1 each in a cottonwood and a maple. The lowest nest was only 4 feet up in a buttonbush and the highest 30 feet from the ground in a willow. The dates ran from May 14 to July 3. Ten of the nests, six of which were in the same tree, were near kingbirds’ nests, one being within 5 feet of such a nest; another was within 25 feet of a marsh hawk’s nest .

In some notes he sent to me on Georgia nests, Frederick V. Hebard says: “The orchard oriole individuals show some tendency to nest at the same time and then to gather in flocks up to 18. Out of five nests, two were built in live oaks, two in pecans and one in a longleaf pine sapling. The lost was lodged in pine needles near the top of the trunk, about 11 feet up. The young had left the nest between June 24 and 26, 1942. The nest was removed and examined June 29. It was a pendulous affair of wire grass with its bottom still green. Outside it was 3% inches deep and 3 by 3~ inches across. Inside it was 2% inches deep and 2Y~ by 3 inches across. It was difficult to understand why it had not fallen as had another, blown out of a pecan in a storm about May 23, 1946. This nest, when examined June 8, was composed of golden wire grass, and measured outside of 2% inches deep and 3% by 4 inches across. Inside it was 2~ inches deep and 2% by 2% across. The proportions of the latter were the same as the three other nests observed. One could see through the bottom of all five nests.”

M. G. Vaiden writes to me from Rosedale, Miss.: “In this imnediate area the orchard oriole prefers the country district to the small town; it is just the opposite with the Baltimore oriole, a bird found almost exclusively breeding within town limits. The orchard oriole can be found nesting over the water in the small cottonwood and switchwillow growths usually found in shallow to deep barrow-pits. It is a most numerous nesting bird in such areas, constructing its semipensile nest near the top of the swinging treetop, or out at a short distance from the top on a limb. Most of the nests have been found in switchwillow or finger-cottonwood growth, but not all are found over water. Occasionally a very large pecan, cottonwood, sycamore, or elm will be found to contain a nest of the orchard oriole. Two nests have been found within the town limits.”

The following account of the nesting habits of the orchard oriole in northwestern Florida comes to me from Francis M. Weston: “The typical nest of the orchard oriole is suspended from a forked terminal twig, usually of a large tree, after the manner of the much pictured nest of the Baltimore oriole, but it is never deep enough to be described as ‘pensile’: its depth is usually less than its outside diameter. Invariably, the nest is woven of long blades of green grass that later turn yellow and give the nest of this species its characteristic color. I was thoroughly familiar with the style and normal situation of this nest before I came to Pensacola, so it was a source of surprise and disappointment to me that I succeeded in finding only a few nests here where the birds are so common. It was years before I could account for my failure. Then, on May 20, 1923, I saw a female oriole disappear into a dense festoon of Spanish ‘moss’ (Dendropogori usneoides) that hung from a low branch of a deciduous oak (Quercu.s sp.). Within the festoon, I found a nest, typical in structure, size, shape and color, but unique in that it was not attached to a twig of the tree but was wholly supported by the strands of the ‘moss’: after the manner of the nests of the parula and the yellow-throated warblers, which nest exclusively in such situations. The nest contained four eggs, well along in incubation. Guided by this discovery, I soon found other nests similarly concealed in Spanish ‘moss.’ I now conclude that at least 50 percent of the oriole nests in this central Gulf Coast region are so situated, while the remainder are in the normally exposed locations on terminal twigs.

“The earliest nest I have ever known contained a full set of eggs on April 29, 1929, but the average for complete sets is the latter half of May. Late nests, probably second or even third attempts by birds that failed the first time, have been seen as late as the latter half of June and even in July. The latest nest I have ever known still contained well-grown young birds on July 14, 1937.”

In Duval County, northern Florida, S. A. Grimes (1931) finds this oriole nesting in the Spanish “moss” very commonly, but also in pecans, other orchard trees, longleaf pines, black gums, oaks, buttonwood saplings, live oaks, sweet gums, hickories, and chinaberry trees, at heights ranging from 4 to 50 feet above the ground. Arthur T. Wayne (1910) has found the nest as high as 70 feet, in South Carolina.

H. H. Kopman (1915) regards the orchard oriole as “the most conspicuous summer visitor in the fertile alluvial section of southeastern Louisiana. * * * Its abundance as a breeder in the southeastern portion of the State, however, can scarcely be comprehended by those whose acquaintance with it is confined to its appearance in more northern localities. In one live oak in a plantation yard where there were many more trees of this kind I once counted nearly twenty nests of this species.”

Near Brownsville, Tex., George B. Sennett (1878) says “it likes to build in mesquite, wesatche, and willow trees.” Farther north, near Austin, Tex., George F. Simmons (1925) lists the following nesting trees: Hackberry, mesquite, cedar elm, winged elm, peach, pear, huisache, retama horse-bean, honey locust, eastern live oak, black willow and pecan trees. Probably many other trees are selected in other parts of its range, for the orchard oriole does not seem to be at all particular in its choice of a nesting tree; weeping willows seem to offer favorite sites.

The nest is beautifully and compactly woven in the shape of a semiglobular cup with a contracted rim. Wilson (1832) says: “I had the curiosity to detach one of the fibres, or stalks of dried grass, from the nest, and found it to measure thirteen inches in length, and in that distance was 34 times hooked through and returned, winding round and round the nest!” The materials used in the construction of the nest vary but little in character; R. C. Tate (1926) says that, in Oklahoma, these consist of “fresh blades of Mesquite grass and gramma grass, yucca fibres, fibers from tree cactus and prickly pear.” Bendire (1895) describes a large well-built nest, taken on Shelter Island, N. Y.: “The outer diameter at the widest part, a little below the middle of the nest, is 4Y~ inches; the outside depth is 4 inches. The upper rim of the nest is somewhat contracted; the inner cup is 3 inches deep by 2l~ inches in diameter. The sides are thick and securely fastened to several branches, but the bottom does not come within 2 inches of the fork of the crotch in which it is placed.” It was placed “in an upright fork of a small branch in a thorn pear tree.” Ora XV. Knight (1908) watched the building of a nest in Texas: “A nest which was discovered in its very first stages of construction was completed in 6 days and an egg was laid daily until a set of five was completed, when incubation commenced. Both birds help to build the nest and aid in the incubation.”

The orchard oriole is a friendly, sociable bird and is often found nesting in orchards with kingbirds, robins, chipping sparrows and other species, with all of which it seems to be on good terms. The eastern kingbird seems to be a favorite companion, from which it may gain some protection. This companionship is referred to above and several observers have mentioned it in print. H. C. Campbell (1891), for example, mentions seven such cases; in one case the oriole’s nest was within 7 feet of the kingbird’s and in another instance the two nests were only 3 feet apart. He says further: “In 1887 I found a nest of the Orchard Oriole in an apple tree. When the nest contained five eggs I collected it. While at the nest a pair of Kingbirds came and made even more demonstration than the Orioles. I found the Kingbird’s nest in a rotten apple tree about 200 feet distant from the tree containing the Oriole’s nest.”

John V. Dennis has sent me some full notes on his interesting experience with what might be considered as communal nesting of the orchard oriole in the Delta National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana, located between the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, some 70 or 80 miles below New Orleans. “Lying on the east bank of the Mississippi, two miles above Piotstown, is the refuge headquarters area, comprising approximately seven acres. Seventy-eight shade trees, as well as numerous shrubs and ornamental plantings, are in the area. Forty-five of the trees are hybrids of live oak and water oak. The other trees are mainly camphor, willow, and magnolia.

“Nest building began about May 1. The peak of nesting activity occurred during the first half of June. The last nest to be observed under construction was one begun on July 4. A total of 114 nests were counted during this single nesting season on the seven-acre tract under study.”

Dennis counted 45 oaks, containing a total of 80 nests; 15 camphor trees, 8 nests; 8 magnolias, 5 nests; 5 willows, 4 nests; 2 elms, 6 nests; 2 cottonwoods, 2 nests; the only pecan held 4 nests; there was 1 nest in 1 of the 2 loquat shrubs; in over 50 ornamental shrubs there were only 2 nests; and in over 100 black elderberries there were only 2 nests .

“The most surprising discovery occurred about a month after nesting had begun at the headquarters area. I had frequently seen orchard orioles in the vast marshes which extend eastward from the Mississippi for a distance of some 10 miles to the waters of the Gulf. I hadn’t suspected nesting in such an unusual habitat for the orchard oriole until I found some very agitated adult birds in a cane break near the mouth of Dead Women Pass. A search revealed their nest. It was built in roseau canes, Phragmites comartunis. The nest was woven about three stalks, which acted as its support. This nest, and others which were discovered later, was located on the outer edge of a cane break overlooking a body of water .

“On all subsequent visits to the marsh I made every effort to find new nests. Eventually some 10 were found in widely separated areas of the marsh; one was less than a hundred yards from the mud flats of the Gulf of Mexico. All were built in roseau cane, usually at a height of about 7 feet. Some nests were completely built of various grasses, while others were almost entirely constructed of salt meadow cordgrass, Spartina paterus. Those furthest from willows, sometimes as far as 5 miles from a tree of any kind, were lined with cattail down. Otherwise the chief item used was the down from willow catkins. The only exception to this was in areas where thistles (found only on filled-in land) grew nearby. Then thistledown was used copiously in lining nests.”

Referring to the nests in trees, he noted that the lowest nest was 2% feet from the ground, and the highest nearly 40 feet. “As often observed, the orchard oriole showed preference to trees occupied by the eastern kingbird. Two kingbird nests were in the study area. One of the nests was in a small hybrid oak. Nesting concurrently in the same tree were four pair of orchard orioles.”

Of seven nests under daily observation, five were built in 3 days, one in 4 days and one in 5.

Eggs: The orchard oriole lays from three to seven eggs to a set, four and five being the commonest numbers; Bendire (1895) says from four to six, mostly five. He describes them as follows:

The eggs are mostly ovate in shape, but occasionally a set is found which is decidedly elongate ovate. The shell is moderately strong, close grained, and without gloss. The ground color is usually pale bluish white, and this is sometimes faintly overlaid with pale pearl gray or grayish white. The markings, which are nearly always heaviest about the larger end of the egg, consist of blotches, spots, scrawls, and tracings of several shades of brown, purple, Lavender, and pearl gray, varying in amount and intensity in different specimens. In the majority of the eggs before me the darker markings predominate, but the lighter colored and more neutral tints are nearly always present to a greater or less extent .

The average measurement of one hundred and thirty-three specimens in the United States National Museum collection is 20.47 by 14.54 millimetres, or about 0.81 by 0.57 inch. The largest egg in the series measures 22.35 by 15.24 millimetres, or 0.88 by 0.60 inch; the smallest, 18.03 by 14.22 millimetres, or 0.71 by 0.56 inch.

Young: Bendlire (1895) says: “Incubation lasts about 12 days, and I am of the opinion that this duty is exclusively performed by the female. I have never seen the male on the nest, but have seen him feed his mate while incubating. I believe as a rule only one brood is raised in a season. Both parents show equal solicitude and devotion in the care and defense of their young from prowling enemies, and will boldly and furiously attack any intruder.”

Grimes (1931) doubts if the period of incubation exceeds 12 days, says that only one brood is raised each year, and that “male and female share the task of incubating the eggs, and both feed and brood the young, which leave the nest when ten or twelve days old. Food for the young, which I have noticed consists largely of katydids, is usually secured at a distance of one hundred yards or more from the nest. * * * The female is by far the more solicitous of the pair when the eggs or young are in danger.”

In the seven nests under daily observation, Dennis found the period of incubation, from the first egg laid to the first hatched, to be 12 days in one nest, 15 days in one, and 14 days in the other five. The young were fledged in from 11 to 14 days .

In her observations on a family of orchard orioles in Wisconsin, Winnifred Smith (1947) noted that “the female did all the incubating. * * * During three hours the male fed the young 23 times, the female 14 times. Feces were carried off or eaten by the male eight times and only once by the female.” After the young had left the nest, the “male undertook the care of two fledglings while the female took care of one. The male chased the female when she attempted to feed the two in his charge. * * * The family remained in the vicinity until July 30 after which they were not seen again in 194G.”

Plumages: Dwight (1900) describes the juvenal plumage of the orchard oriole as “above, including sides of head and neck, pale grayish olive-green, buffy on rump. Below, pale sulphur-yellow. Wings pale clove-brown, the primaries and secondaries narrowly edged with dull white, the median and greater wing coverts with pale buff forming two indistinct wing bands. Tail yellowish olive green.”

The first winter plumage is acquired by a partial postjuvenal molt, beginning late in July, at which time only the wing-quills and the tail feathers are retained. In this plumage both sexes are much like the adult female in winter. A limited prenuptial molt, mainly about the head and throat, occurs in late winter or early spring, before the birds come north, at which time the young male acquires the black throat, or a number of black feathers in that region, and a few chestnut feathers more or less scattered over the body. Young males are known to have bred in this plumage. Young females have an even more limited molt at this season. Adults have a limited prenuptial molt about the head and throat .

Young birds and adults have a complete postnuptial molt in early fall after they have gone south, at which time the adult winter plumage is assumed. This is like the spring plumage, except that the brown and black colors of the male are heavily veiled and nearly concealed by buff or yellowish tips which wear away before spring. Old females sometimes have a few black feathers in the throat .

Dickey and van Rossem (1938) throw some light on the molts of the orchard oriole, based on specimens collected in El Salvador:

On arrival in mid-August these orioles are in fearfully abraded plumage, for they have, contrary to the usual custom, completed the migration before the annual molt has taken place. This is true of adults and young alike, and when the latter arrive they are still in soft, juvenal feather. The process of annual renewal is a relatively slow one, and not until the latter part of October (in one case November 4) is the new plumage completely acquired. Males in their second year, that is, those which have molted from the black-throated, greenish plumage of the first year to the first, brown, subadult plumage, are characterized by broad huffy tipping to the feathers of the body plumage. This tipping makes such males superficially more or less like Icterus fuertesi, hut most of the lighter color wears off by midwinter. During early April some 1-year-old spring males show a limited spring molt involving both the chin and throat, and some new lack feathers appear on these parts .

Todd and Carriker (1922) collected an adult male in Colombia on October 15, 1915, that was completing the postnuptial molt. “The rectrices are about two-thirds grown, and the wings retain only the two outermost primaries of the old dress.”

Food: Judd (1902) studied the contents of 11 stomachs of the orchard oriole, collected on a Maryland farm in May and June; the food “was composed of 91 percent animal matter and 9 percent vegetable matter. The latter part was nearly all mulberries; the former was distributed as follows: Fly larvae, 1 percent; parasitic wasps, 2 percent; ants, 4 percent; bugs, 5 percent; caterpillars, 12 percent; grasshoppers, including a few crickets, 13 percent; beetles, 14 percent; May-flies, 27 percent; spiders, 13 percent. Thus beneficial insects: parasitic wasps: formed only 2 percent of the food, and injurious species: caterpillars, grasshoppers, and harmful beetles: amounted to 38 percent.”

Bendire (1895) writes: “Few birds do more good and less harm than our Orchard Oriole, especially to the fruit grower. The bulk of its food consists of small beetles, plant lice, flies, hairless caterpillars, cabbage worms, grasshoppers, rose bugs, and larvae of all kinds, while the few berries it may help itself to during the short time they last are many times paid for by the great number of noxious insects destroyed, and it certainly deserves the fullest protection.”

Barrows (1912) says that “two specimens were killed in an orchard overrun with canker worms in Tazewell County, Ill., in 1881, and the contents of their stomachs studied by Professor S. A. Forbes. lie found that nearly four-fifths of their food was cankerworms, while other caterpillars formed all but three percent of the remainder, this being ants. Butler states that in Indiana when the young leave the nest the whole family go into the cornfields and feed upon the insect enemies of the corn.~~ According to A. H. Howell (1924), this oriole “is a persistent hunter of boll weevils, and is one of the few birds that has learned to seek out and destroy this pest which hides in the cotton squares. Nearly onethird of the stomachs of this species taken in the Texas cotton fields contained boll weevils; the average number of weevils found in a stomach was 2 and individual birds had eaten as many as 13 weevils at a meal.”

Economic status: The only arguments that can be advanced against the orchard oriole as an economically valuable bird are the claims that it eats the stamens in the blossoms of the fruit trees; that it occasionally helps itself to various small fruits such as cherries, strawberries, and raspberries; and that it does some damage to grapes and ripening figs. But the slight damage done is insignificant when compared with the great good that it does in destroying harmful insects, which make up 90 percent of its food.

Behavior: The orchard oriole is a gentle, friendly, and sociable bird that lives in perfect harmony with many other birds in more or less close association and seems to enjoy human environments. It is a restless, lively bird, and not particularly shy, but since it spends most of its time flitting about in the trees in search of insects, or keeping out of sight among the foliage, it is not as easily observed as some others. When it is singing freely in the spring, we are often attracted to it by its voice and can catch a glimpse of its pretty colors and its graceful, slender form as it hops from twig to twig, or makes short flights among the branches, or hangs head downward to pry under a leaf in search of its prey. During the courting season, an ardent male may sometimes be seen to rise high above the treetops and to pour out an ecstasy of song as it descends to its leafy shelter.

Voice: Aretas A. Saunders contributes the following study: “The song of the orchard oriole consists of a series of rather rapid, musical notes, exceedingly variable in time and pitch. As I study my 32 records of this song, I can find no fixed pattern for the song and no general rule that does not have exceptions. One marvels that under such conditions the song, when well known, is always recognizable in the field. The quality, mainly musical but with occasional harsh notes, is more like that of the robin than that of the Baltimore oriole. While most of the notes are distinctly separated, there are two-note phrases, connected by liquid consonant sound, and slurs. The notes vary up and down in pitch, but there are occasional series of notes on the same pitch.

“The number of notes in the songs I have recorded varies from 7 to 19, averaging about 12. The songs vary from 1 4/5 to 3 1/5 seconds in length. The pitch varies from E” to B”‘, 3 1/2 tones more than an octave. Individual songs range from 2 1/2 tones to an octave, or 6 tones. The average range is about 3.85 tones .

“A common characteristic of many of the songs is that they end in a downward slurred note, distinctly harsher than the other notes of the song, that suggests the quality of the scarlet tanager, rather than that of the robin; 22 of my records have such an ending.

“Another characteristic is a series of very short notes, all on one pitch, usually near the end of the song. I have heard this described as a trill, but I use the term ‘trill’ only for series of notes so rapid that they cannot be separated by ear and counted. Under that definition, I have never heard an orchard oriole sing a trill. The number of notes that are thus rapidly repeated varies from 3 to 6 in my records, and 18 of them contain such a series of notes, while only 3 are without this series or the downward slur; 11 records contain both. Downward slurs are common, though not always terminal; 27 of my records contain them and 14 contain 2 or more. Upward slurs are rarer, only 6 records containing them .

“The orchard oriole sings from the time of its arrival to the earlier part of July. In eight seasons when I was able to observe this species, the last song averaged July 10, with July 5,1944, and July 17, 1941, as earliest and latest dates. This bird has a long, rattle-like call, and a shorter one very similar to the chacic of the redwing.”

The vivacious, attractive song has been compared to the rollicking outburst of the bobolink, the rich spring song of the fox sparrow, and the warbling songs of the purple finch or be warbling vireo. It is not as loud, nor as rich as that of the Baltimore oriole and is quite unlike it, but it is equally pleasing. Chapman (1912) says of it: “His voice is indeed unusually rich and flexible, and he uses it with rare skill and expression. Words can not describe his song, but no lover of bird music will be long in the vicinity of a singing Orchard Oriole without learning the distinguished songster’s name.” C. W. Townsend (1920) writes: “The full song of the Orchard Oriole is given with great abandon from a perch and especially on the wing. I have heard one sing six times in a minute and have tried to express his song by the words Look here, what cheer, what cheer, whip ye, what cheer, wee ye.” Witmer Stone (1937) represents it with the syllables “teetle-to—-wheeter-tit-tilo-wheetee, chip, chip, cheer.” Another bird called: “Cheep, cheep, choolik as if trying to start a song and failing in the effort.” Francis H. Allen tells me that the food calls of the young resemble those of the Baltimore oriole, but are higher pitched and more rapid. Young males in first year plumage sing enthusiastically; and sometimes females sing a little.

Field marks: The adult male orchard oriole is unmistakable in his black and chestnut plumage. The young male is like the female, but has a black, or partially black, throat and usually more or less chestnut scattered through his plumage. The female might easily be mistaken for the female of some other orioles, but she differs from the Baltimore oriole by being olive-green above, instead of brownish olive, and having less of an orange tinge on the under parts, which are dull yellow.

Enemies: The orchard oriole is a not uncommon host of both the eastern and the dwarf cowbirds. There is a set in my collection containing a cowbird’s egg. Dr. J. C. Merrill (1877) mentions a nest that contained three eggs of the red-eyed cowbird, “while just beneatli it was a whole egg of this parasite, also a broken one of this and of the Dwarf Cowbird.” The nest was, of course, deserted.

Harold S. Peters (1936) mentions only one external parasite as found on this oriole, a louse, Myreidea incerta (Kell.) .

Grackles, which sometimes nest in the same trees with the orioles, probably rob some of the nests of eggs or small young. And young birds that leave the nests prematurely fall easy prey to various predators.

Fall: The orchard oriole spends only about 10 weeks in the northern part of its breeding range, arriving early in May and leaving soon after the middle of July. It lingers through August and occasionally into September in some of the Southern States; Howell (1932) gives one very late date, October 13, 1917, for Royal Palm Hammock in southern Florida. The fall migration is started and, apparently, often finished before the annual molt is accomplished; some young birds arrive in Central America while still in juvenal plumage, and many adults are still molting when they arrive.

As soon as the young are able to fly, old birds disappear with their families, forming into flocks, and are seen no more in their breeding haunts. In Missouri, according to Widmann (1907), “after the young are grown the species roams in July and August in troops through the country living mostly on wild cherries, wild grapes and ether wild fruit, sometimes visiting orchards. After August 20 the species is seen only occasionally, though we may come upon a few later in the month, or in early September, exceptionally later (September 17, 1903, New Haven; September 21, 1903, Kansas City).”

Kopman (1915) says: “This species becomes inconspicuous at Gulf coast latitudes after ‘the middle of August, though little companies of them may be in evidence for a few days at a time at intervals until Sept. 10 or 15. Such transients usually form part of slight waves including other species. The latest date of departure is Sept. 26, 1914, near Poydras, St. Bernard parish Louisiana. The average date of departure is about Sept. 15.”

F. M. Weston writes to me: “The orchard oriole is the first summer resident to disappear from the Pensacola region. It becomes rare early in July and, in some years, it is not seen after July 15. Ordinarily an occasional bird appears in August and, twice in a period of thirty years, I have recorded occurrence in September: September 1, 1940, and September 3, 1944. In both cases these were apparently family groups of young birds. This suggests that the birds that are successful in their family affairs leave early in July, and it is only the few that are delayed by having to ‘try, try again’ that make up the sparse August population “The fall migration route of the orchard oriole is certainly not a reversal of the spring route. Then, as noted above, they come across the Gulf in tremendous numbers and pass through this region on their way to more northerly breeding grounds. In fall, when a successful breeding season must have at least doubled their numbers and oven a poor season would not have diminished them, few orioles are seen. During 30 years of continuous field observation, I have never under any circumstances of favorable or adverse weather conditions seen any concentrations of orioles, though it is a common experience to find thousands of migrants of other species weatherbound on this coast on several occasions every fall. Our local breeding population of orioles merely withdraws from this region, and no birds from more northerly areas come in to replace them.”

There seem to be few fall records for southern Florida, none for the Florida Keys and none for Cuba. By what route these orioles migrate to their winter homes in Central America and northern South America does not seem to be known. Some may migrate across the Gulf farther west, or they may follow the coasts of Texas and M6xico, but conclusive data are lacking.

Grimes (1931) gives the following account of their disappearance from northeastern Florida:

Late in June the oriole’s singing begins to diminish in force, and discordant notes creep in as the song becomes broken and unmusical. After the first week in July it Is unusual to hear the song at all, and I have noticed that the gathering flocks are composed entirely of plain yellow birds: females and young or perhaps only young birds: and that the males have suddenly disappeared. Sometimes these flocks consist of as many as twenty-five or thirty individuals, but more commonly of ten or twelve. It seems that several families of orioles from a certain breeding area congregate in a selected stretch of woods and fields after the nesting season and spend a month or six weeks there getting acquainted and organized before starting on their southward migration, but this is a conjecture that would be difficult to substantiate.

Winter: Alexander F. Skutch contributes this account: The orchard oriole is one of the very first of the visitors from the north to reach Central America as fall approaches. On July 20, 1932, I found a male and female together in a bushy pasture beside the Motagua River in Guatemala: only 3 months earlier, on April 21, I had seen the last of the spring migrants lower in the same Valley. Cherrie recorded the species at San Jose, Costa Rica, on July 31; while still farther south it has been met at El Pozo de Terraba, Costa Rica, on August 10, and in the Canal Zone on the same date. Many adults arrive in northern Central America in worn breeding plumage, having left their nesting area before completing the postnuptial molt. Considering these facts, Osbert Salvin long ago surmised that the orchard oriole might breed in the Guatemalan highlands; but subsequent intensive exploration has failed to reveal its presence there during the summer months.

“Like the Baltimore oriole, the orchard oriole is widely distributed over Central America during the period of the northern winter. It is found in midwinter from Guatemala to Panama, and along both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts. I have met it at this season in regions of such contrasting climate and vegetation as the wet Caribbean lowlands of Guatemala and Honduras and the arid coast of El Salvador, where in early February these birds were abundant amid cacti and low, thorny trees at Cutuco. But although as widely, the orchard oriole is by no means so uniformly distributed over Central America as the Baltimore oriole. It seems to winter in far greater numbers in Guatemala and Honduras than in Costa Rica and Panama. In the former countries it equals or exceeds the Baltimore oriole in abundance, at least at lower altitudes, while in Costa Rica the Baltimore oriole is certainly the more common bird: on this last point my own experience is quite in accord with that of Carriker (1910), whose ornithological work in the country antedated my own by a third of a century. In altitudinal range, the orchard oriole is far more restricted than the Baltimore oriole. Even in northern Central America, where it is so abundant in the lowlands, it is rarely met above 4,000 or 5,000 feet. In the Torraba Valley of Costa Rica, from 1,500 feet upward, the orchard oriole is a very rare winter visitant, while the Baltimore oriole is fairly abundant.

“Although my few Costa Rican records of the orchard oriole are all of single individuals, in northern Central America, where the species is far more abundant, it is more sociable during the winter months, wandering in straggling flocks through the riverside trees, the plantations and shady pastures, ‘but rarely entering heavy forest. In the banana plantations, these oriole hang head downward beside the huge, red flower buds and push their sharp bills into the long, white, tubular blossoms to sip the abundant nectar. In the pasture lands they straggle along the fence lines, where living trees of the madre de cacao form the posts, and investigate the pink, pealike blossoms which in February or March cover the long, leafless branches. The single orchard oriole that in four years I have seen on my farm in southern Costa Rica was visiting the madre de cacao blossoms in a hedgerow. When they find groves of introduced eucalyptus trees, the orioles probe the clusters of long white stamens, either for nectar or for the small insects attracted to the flowers.

“I have twice found the roosts of wintering orchard orioles. They seem to prefer stands of tall grass of one sort or another. In the Lancetilla Valley, on the northern coast of Honduras, many roosted nightly in a patch of introduced elephant grass, Pennisetum purpureum, which formed an impenetrable thicket 6 or 8 feet high. They went early to roost, sometimes retiring an hour before nightfall. By the time the crowds of small resident finches joined them there, they were completely hidden from view amid the tall grass, whence would issue a few snatches of their breezy song, audible above the chatter of the garrulous seedeaters. Here the orchard orioles slept with seven other species of birds, both resident and migratory, including a few Baltimore orioles, as told in the section devoted to that species. I found the orchard orioles roosting in this patch of grass in September and October, and again in February of the following year. In March 1932, a small flock roosted in a dense stand of young giant canes, Cynerium sagittatum, that were colonizing a sandy flat left by a shift in the channel of the Rio Morjo, a small tributary of the Motagua in Guatemala. The canes, still only 10 feet or less in height, had attained only a fraction of their full stature, and resembled some tall, coarse grass, like the elephant grass in which I had found the orioles roosting in an earlier year, rather than a mature stand of Gynerium .

“I have heard no other winter visitant sing so much during its sojourn in Central America as the orchard oriole. Upon arriving in Honduras and Guatemala in August, the males often delivered fragments of hurried, whistled song. In September their songs came more rarely; but toward the end of October, more than two months after the arrival of the firet-comers, I still occasionally overheard them deliver brief, subdued refrains. From October to March they were practically songless, but before the vernal equinox they began to sing sweetly again. In the Motagua Valley in Guatemala, where orchard orioles winter in great numbers, at the beginning of April I heard no bird’s voice so much as theirs; for the Gray’s thrushes, so abundant in the cleared plantation lands, had not yet come into full song. The orioles that roosted in the dense stand of young canes beside the Rio Morj~ raised a delightful chorus when they awoke at dawn. Their music increased in both quality and abundance up to the time of their departure; and the young, black-throated, yellowish males, eager to use their newly acquired singing voices, performed as much if not more than the mature males in chestnut and black. They captured my heart as no other birds, they whistled so often and so cheerily on the eve of their long migration, when most other birds of passage sing little or none.~~ In El Salvador, according to Dickey and van Rossem (1938), the orchard oriole is a “common winter visitant and abundant fall and spring migrant in the lowlands throughout the country.” They refer to some of its habits as follows:

About the middle of February, in 1926, the ceiba trees on the coastal plain at Rio San Miguel were a solid mass of pink bloom, to which came unbelievable numbers of orchard orioles in search of the swarming insects. Until this sudden concentration we had noticed no sex segregation, but now it was suddenly apparent that these great flocks, composed of hundreds of individuals, were made up almost exclusively of old males. On February 20, a great ceiba standing alone in a grass pasture was watched for over an hour. No accurate estimate could be made of the number of birds present, but it certainly ran into many hundreds. The wide-spreading mat of blossoms was at least one hundred feet from the ground, and the darting restless swarm of old males packed it literally to a point where there was no room for more. * * * Orioles of the smaller species (particularly of the genus Icte,-us) are not, as a group, noted for their flocking tendencies, but spurius while in winter quarters is very much of an exception to this general rule. Not only does it spend the day in small groups, but it frequently concentrates still further at sundown and roosts in good-sized flocks. Such a night roost, composed of about fifty birds, was seen on many occasions in a tangle of mimosa and vines in a barranca at Divisadero. Others were observed at Barra de Santiago in the low scrub of a sand spit between the ocean and lagoon.

DISTRIBUTION
Range: Manitoba and southern Ontario to northern South America.

Breeding Range: The orchard oriole breeds from southern Manitoba (Cypress River), central and southeastern Minnesota (Nisawa, Stiliw ater), central Wisconsin (northern Wood County), southern Michigan (Greenville, Port Huron), southern Ontario (Lambton, Gananoque), north-central Pennsylvania (Punxatawney, Lock Haven), central and central-eastern New York (casually to Ithaca Wilmington), and central and northeastern Massachusetts (Amherst, Fitchburg); south through eastern and central-southern North Dakota (Devils Lake, Bismarck), central South Dakota (Stamford, Grass Creek), central Nebraska (Fort Niobrara Refuge, North Platte), northeastern Colorado (Wray), central-northern and western Texas (Amarillo, Marfa) to central Durango, central Nuev6 Leon, northern Tamaulipas, southern Texas (Hidalgo, Brownsville), the Gulf coast, and northern Florida (Aucilla, Saint Augustine).

Winter Range: Winters from Colima, Guerrero, Puebla (iluexotitla), central Veracruz (Jalapa), Yucat4n, and Quintana Roo (Cozumel Island); south to southern and central-eastern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela; in migration west to southern Sinaloa (Labrados, Rosario) and Nayarit (San Bias); and east through peninsular Florida, the Florida Keys, and western Cuba.

Casual records: Casual in New Mexico (Hagerman), central Colorado (Denver, North Creek), Wyoming (New Castle), western South Dakota (Buffalo Gap, Grand River Agency), south-central Manitoba (Lake Saint Martin), northern Michigan (McMillan, Onaway), southern Quebec (La Colle), northern Vermont (Middleburry, Orleans), central New Hampshire (Grafton County), southern Maine (Auburn, Calais), New Brunswick (Grand Manan) and Nova Scotia (Cape Sable Island).

Accidental in California (Eureka) and Nevada (Halleck).

Migration: Early dates of spring arrival are: Costa Rica: El General, February 24. Cuba: Havana, April 10. Florida: De Funiak Springs, March 15; Pensacola, March 22 (median of 40 years, March 30); Fort Myers, March 28 (median of 7 years, April 12). Alabama: Mobile, March 30; Decatur, April 6. Georgia: Savannah, March 18; Tifton, March 29. South Carolina: March 27; Aiken, April 3. North Carolina: Raleigh, April 16 (average of 30 years, April 25). Virginia: Norfolk, April 21. West Virginia: French Creek, April 21 (median of 9 years, May 1). District of Columbia: April 25 (average of 40 years, May 3). Maryland: Laurel, April 7 (median of 9 years, April 30); Denton, April 19. Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, April 19; Beaver, April 22 (average of 13 years, May 1). New Jersey: Moores town, April 15; Demarest, April 23. New York: Bronx County, April 28; Buffalo, April 30. Connecticut: Jewett City, April 29 (average of 21 years, May 10). Rhode Island: Providence, May 5. Massachusetts: Newton Highlands, April 17; Chatham, April 20. Maine: Springvale, May 9. Louisiana: Thibodaux, March 20; Bains, March 21. Mississippi: coastal Mississippi, March 21. Arkansas: Helena, March 30 (average of 24 years, April 13). Tennessee: Memphis, April 2; Athens, April 6 (median of 7 years, April 13). Kentucky: Guthrie, April 14. Missouri: St. Louis, April 15 (average of 11 years, April 22); Columbia, April 18 (median of 20 years, May 2). Illinois: Murphysboro, March 20; Chicago region, April 1 (average, May 15). Indiana: Silverwood, Fountain County, April 4. Ohio: central Ohio, April 3 (average, May 3); Columbiana, April 8. Michigan: Ann Arbor, April 23 (average of 22 years, May 6). Ontario: Hyde Park, May 2; Port Dover, May 4. Iowa: Wall Lake, April 23. Wisconsin: Waukesha, May 2. Minnesota: La Crescent, May 3 (average of 16 years in southern Minnesota, May 12); Polk County, May 11 (average of 10 years in northern Minnesota, May 20). Texas: Olmito, March 24; Dallas, April 9. Oklahoma: Oklahoma City, March 23; Ardmore, April 13. Kansas: B endena, April 10; Harper, April 21 (median of 13 years, April 29). Nebraska: Bladen, March 21; Red Cloud, April 30 (average of 24 years, May 8). South Dakota: Yankton, April 28. North Dakota: Fairmount, May 23. Manitoba: Winnipeg, May 18. Colorado: Beulah, May 15; Yuma, May 17.

Late dates of spring departure are: Colombia: Aracataca, March 2. PanamA: Gat4n, March 31. Costa Rica: El General, April 10. Nicaragua: Eden, March 28. Guatemala: Qufrigu~, April 21. El Salvador: Barra de Santiago, April 12. Veracruz: Omealca, May 15. Nuevo Le6n: Montemorelos, May 21. Cuba: Havana, April 19. Florida: Bradenton, May 19; Tortugas, April 30. New Jersey: New Brunswick, May 30. New York: New York City region, June 8. Illinois: Chicago, May 18 (average of 6 years, May 15).

Early dates of fall arrival are: Texas: Tivoli, August 15. South Carolina: Greenwood, July 5. Tamaulipas: Pano Ayuctle, August 6. Durango: Papasquiaro, August 8. Veracruz: July 16. Michoacon: Apatzingn, August 12. El Salvador: Lake Olomega, August 16. Honduras: Cantarranas, August 3. Nicaragua: Escondido River, August 20. Costa Rica: San Jos6, July 31. Panama: Perm, August 3. Colombia: Fundacion, October 15.

Late dates of fall departure are: California: Eureka, October 6 (only record). North Dakota: Fargo, September 10. South Dakota: Faulkton, October 15; Yankton, September 9. Nebraska: Omaha, September 12. Kansas: Hays, October 12; Onaga, September 9 (median of 9 years, September 1). Oklahoma: Oklahoma City, September 18. Texas: Austin, October 10. Minnesota: St. Paul, September 3 (average of 5 years in southern Minnesota, July 31). Wisconsin: Milwaukee, October 14. lowa: Woodhury County, September 24. Ontario: London, September 16. Michigan: Grand Rapids, September 28. Ohio: Toledo, September 24; central Ohio, August 28 (average August 19). Indiana: Richmond, September 20. Illinois: Deerfield, October 10; Freeport, September 24. Missouri: Concordia, September 26 (average of 8 years, August 23); Kansas City, September 21. Kentucky: Versailles, October 2. Tennessee: Athens, September 22 (average of 6 years, August 24). Arkansas: Rogers, October 1. Mississippi: Edwards, October 21. Louisiana: New Orleans, October 10. Nova Scotia: Sable Island, September 28. Massachusetts: Lexington, September 30. Rhode Island: Kingston, November 8. Connecticut: Hartford, September 18. New York: Massapequa, September 27. New Jersey: Long Beach, September 8. Pennsylvania: McKeesport, October 19; Berwyn, September 21 (average of 14 years, August 31). Maryland: Gibson Island, October 13; Charles County, September 21. District of Columbia: September 14 (average of 5 years, August 27). West Virginia: Bluefield, September 10. Virginia: Richmond, September 22; Lexington, September 19. North Carolina: North Wilkesboro, October 27; Raleigh, August 22 (average of 10 years, August 6). South Carolina: Spartanburg, September 26. Georgia: Augusta, September 7. Alabama: Smelley, October 13. Florida: Royal Palm Hammock, October 13; Fort Myers, October 11 (median of 7 years, September 28); Pensacola, September 14 (median of 18 years, August 25). Sinaloa: Escuinapa, October 25.

Egg dates: Illinois: 12 records, May 13 to June 20; 7 records, May 22 to June 10. Kansas: 8 records, June 5 to June 21.

New York: 4 records, May 29 to June 13 .

South Carolina: 11 records, May 16 to June 6; 6 records, May24 to May 31. Texas, 30 records, April 29 to July 2; 18 records, May 8 to May 30.