About two weeks ago I told Steve there was a new bird in the yard. I'd heard it calling -- sort of a cross between a woodpecker and a kingfisher(which an online birding site describes as a "rolling, dry chatter"). I stood for a few minutes, peering into our neighbor's eucalyptus tree, and sure enough, a flash of yellow darted out of the tree and over the house, allowing only the quickest glimpse -- not enough to describe. Two days later Steve saw it too, saying it was a hooded oriole, which he'd added to his life list when we lived in South Texas.
A few days later, it started feeding at the hummingbird feeder, along with another young bird, which we assumed was its offspring.
Males have an orange-yellow coloring with a black face, tail, wings and back. Wings have two white bars of feathers. The bill has a slight down curve that comes to a sharp point, enabling them to feed on tubular flowers.
Females are olive-green with yellow undertones. They nest in tall trees, including cottonwoods and live oaks -- both of which grow in abundance in Folsom, California -- as well as eucalyptus trees, although from what I can tell the nest is not in the eucalyptus next door.
We think we've got one female and one immature male, although it's tough to say for certain. The birds are reclusive and skittish, and twice now I've complained that I haven't seen them all day, only to have them appear -- literally within minutes -- at the feeder outside the kitchen window.
The bird is a visitor and will winter in Mexico, heading out around August.
The oriole photo shown here is from this website.
No comments:
Post a Comment