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Baltimore Oriole
Icterus galbula
39.0976, -76.5764
Field Notes
Description:
The Baltimore oriole is a small icterid blackbird common in eastern North America as a migratory breeding bird.
Orioles feed on insects, fruit, and nectar, preferring ripe, dark-colored fruit, such as red cherries and purple grapes.
Habitat:
Typically, the Baltimore Oriole in the spring migrates north from Mexico and South America to the United States, and returns south for the winter. In the spring, the Oriole weaves bag-shaped hanging nests often found on shade trees in small towns here and in the Midwest.
Notes:
It received its name from the resemblance of the male's colors to those on the coat-of-arms of Lord Baltimore. Observations of interbreeding between the Baltimore oriole and the western Bullock's oriole, Icterus bullockii, led to both being classified as a single species, called the northern oriole, from 1973 to 1995. Research by James Rising, a professor of zoology at the University of Toronto, and others showed that the two birds actually did not interbreed significantly.
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