Article: Special American Birds Orioles are...

Special American Birds

Orioles are one of America's favorite backyard birds. Their strikingly beautiful black and orange or yellow plumage, their whistled spring songs that ring out from the treetops, their amazing suspended nests that are an architectural wonder of the avian world, and their endearing habit of choosing our backyards as their summer homes all make them a special bird that is close to our hearts.

Add to this their incredible journey from our temperate zone to the tropics and back each year and you begin to realize what a wonderful symbol orioles are for the rhythms of life on the American continents.

There are a total of twenty-four species of orioles in the world, and they all live in North or South America. Orioles are medium-sized birds with relatively long bills and long tails, and they tend to live in habitats where there are shrubs and trees from tropical to semiarid regions. They are often found along rivers or the edges of woods.

Orioles are closely related to blackbirds, grackles, meadowlarks, and cowbirds. Together, these groups, and several others, make up the family of birds collectively called blackbirds; the scientific name is Icteridae. Icteridae comes from the Greek word for "yellow," referring to the yellow plumage of many members of this family.

In the United States there are ten species of orioles that can be seen, eight of them regularly. Of these, five are highly migratory, moving between breeding and wintering grounds each year. The rest are generally year-round residents within their ranges.

All of our orioles show variations on the theme of black with yellow or orange plumage. In the adult males, tails and wings are mostly black and the head is either all black or black on just the face and throat. The only exception is the adult male Bullock's Oriole, which has a black cap, black eyeline, and black throat. Most of the adult females have sooty wings, dusky yellow or orange tails, and more limited black on the head and throat.

Interestingly, the five species that are migratory are also strongly dimorphic, meaning that adult males and females look very different. The resident species are primarily monomorphic -- adult males and females look alike. One possible reason for this pattern is that migratory birds need to settle and find mates quickly when they arrive on their breeding grounds, and having the sexes look different facilitates rapid pairing. Birds that are year-round residents have more time to set up territories and find mates, or they may simply stay together as pairs all year, making quick recognition less important.

A Bird's-eye View

Over the years, we have written many books on attracting birds and other wildlife to your backyard, and with each one we gain a deeper appreciation for life.

Of all the ways to be involved with birds, we find attracting them to be one of the most absorbing and rewarding. In order to attract a bird species, you have to know how they see the world. You need to know the size of their territories, the habitats where they feed, the foods they eat, the places they nest, the materials with which they build their nest, and their changing social arrangements as they pass in and out of the breeding season. You must know their needs during each of the seasons, their arrival and departure schedule, and what they consider shelter.

Trying to attract a bird is a refreshing and challenging exercise. It forces you, if only for a moment, to move beyond our limited human perspective and get a brief glimpse of the world from the point of view of another species with which we share the planet.

We wish you the best of luck in attracting orioles. If you succeed, then you will know you have offered something they need in their lives. You will have increased the value of your yard in orioles' lives, and in so doing, you will have undoubtedly increased its richness for other living things as well.

When you do this, you increase the quality of life for yourself, your family, and everyone else with whom you share your property.

Yours in attracting birds,
Lillian and Don Stokes

© 2000 by Donald W. Stokes and Lillian Q. Stokes