General

Hooded Oriole: Medium-sized, showy oriole with bright orange-yellow head and nape, and black back, face, throat, and upper breast. Bill is slightly decurved. Black wings have two white bars. Tail is black. Female has olive-gray upperparts and yellow-green underparts. Juvenile is similar to female; male may show black on throat.

Range and Habitat

Hooded Oriole: Breeds from central California, Nevada, central Arizona, southern New Mexico, and southern Texas southward. A few spend winters in southern California and southern Texas. Found in deciduous and riparian woodlands and human habitations, often near ranches or towns.

Breeding and Nesting

Hooded Oriole: Three to five white, pale yellow, or pale blue eggs with brown and purple spots are laid in a nest made of leaves and moss, lined with moss, grass, wool, hair, and feathers, and attached to the underside of a leaf or tree branch. Incubation ranges from 12 to 14 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Hooded Oriole: Diet consists mostly of fruits, nectar, and insects. Forages in shrubs and trees; uses its pointed bill to pierce flower bases to obtain nectar from agaves, aloes, hibiscus, lilies, and other tubular flowers.

Readily Eats

Suet, Jelly, Orange Halves, Raisins

Vocalization

Hooded Oriole: Song is a series of whistles, chatters, and warbles. Call is an ascending, whistled "wheeat."

Similar Species

Hooded Oriole: Altamira Oriole is larger and has orange shoulders. Bullock's Oriole has white wing patches and black eye-line. Baltimore Oriole has a black head; female is smaller and has shorter tail.