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  Profile

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  In flight

Tropical Birds

Orchard Oriole

Icterus spurius

• rare
• 55 km/h
• Least Concern

Smaller, deeper-rust cousin of the Baltimore. Slips through orchards quietly and is gone by August.

Population

~12 million (global breeding population, Partners in Flight); Continental Concern Score 10/20; North American BBS shows a decline of just over 1%/year, ~46% cumulative decline 1966-2019, unevenly distributed geographically

Habitat

Open woodland edges, riverine groves, orchards, and semi-open deciduous woodlands near parks, lakes, and streams; nests in a tightly woven pouch attached to a horizontal branch fork

Fun fact

The Orchard Oriole is the smallest oriole (icterid) species in North America, and adult males are unusual among orioles for their dark chestnut (rather than bright orange) underparts; the species name "spurius" stems from an 18th-century misidentification of the male as a female Baltimore Oriole.

Range

Breeds across eastern and central North America (from roughly the Canada-US border south through the central US into northern/central Mexico, including thorn forests of Baja California Sur and coastal Sinaloa); winters from coastal Mexico (central Sinaloa, southern Veracruz) south through Central America to northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela

Diet

Primarily insects and spiders gleaned from foliage during breeding season; shifts to ripe fruit, nectar, pollen, and seeds during migration and winter

Size

0.165 m

Wingspan

0.25 m

Lifespan

11 years