Bird name:

Audubon's Oriole

Icterus graduacauda

Order

PASSERIFORMES

Family

Blackbirds and Orioles (Icteridae)

Code 4

AUOR

Code 6

ICTGRA

ITIS

179065

Breeding Location:

Bushes, shrubs, and thickets, Forests

Breeding Type:

Monogamous, Solitary nester

Breeding Population:

Uncommon and local

Egg Color:

Pale blue or gray with brown or purple marks

Number of Eggs:

3 - 5

Incubation Days:

12 - 14

Egg Incubator:

Female

Nest Material:

Grasses

Migration:

Nonmigratory

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General

Audubon's Oriole: Large oriole with yellow-green upperparts, black hood extending onto upper breast, and lemon-yellow underparts. Wings are black with a single white bar and white-edged feathers. Tail is all black. Female is similar but duller. Juvenile resembles female but has olive tail, gray-brown wings and lacks the dark hood.

Range and Habitat

Audubon's Oriole: Occurs in the Rio Grande Valley of southernmost Texas. From southern Texas, range extends south along the Gulf of Mexico through the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, Veracruz, Hidalgo, and Queretaro. Preferred habitats include riparian thickets, scrub, forest undergrowth, and semiarid pine-oak woodlands.

Breeding and Nesting

Audubon's Oriole: Three to five brown- or purple-speckled, black-scrawled, pale blue or gray eggs are laid in a woven nest made of fresh grass; nest hangs attached by top and side from small vertical terminal branch, 6 to 14 feet above the ground. Incubation ranges from 12 to 14 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Audubon's Oriole: Eats insects and some fruits; frequently forages on the ground.

Readily Eats

Suet, Jelly, Orange Halves, Raisins

Vocalization

Audubon's Oriole: Song is a soft series of three-note warbles "peut-pou-it," each note a different pitch, with the second note highest. Call is a nasal "yehnk, yehnk," often repeated.

Similar Species

Audubon's Oriole: Scott's Oriole has black, not yellow, back. Other U.S. orioles do not have a black hood.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Underparts

Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Breast

The upper front part of a bird.

Riparian

Relating to or living or located on the bank of a natural watercourse (as a river) or sometimes of a lake or a tidewater.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America