Altamira Oriole Identification

The Four Keys to ID

• Size & Shape

  A large songbird with a long tail, stocky body, and fairly large head. The bill is very thick at the base but fairly long and sharply pointed.

  Relative Size

  Larger than a Brewer’s Blackbird, smaller than a Common Grackle.

  between sparrow and robin

  Measurements

  • Both Sexes
  • • Length: 8.3-9.8 in (21-25 cm)
    • Weight: 1.7-2.3 oz (47-64 g)
    • Wingspan: 14.2 in (36 cm)

  © Tom Johnson / Macaulay Library

• Color Pattern

  Adults are brilliant orange and black, brightest in the face. They have black in front of the eye and on the chin, a black back, tail, and wings, with a white wingbar and orange shoulder. Immatures are yellowish orange, with an olive brown back and without the orange shoulder mark. Juveniles have a yellow head and body, olive back, and lack the wing markings and dark face and chin markings.

• Behavior

  Forages by taking small fruits, gleaning insects and larvae from leaves and branches, sometimes from the ground, and drinking flower nectar. Hops between branches and flies quickly between trees. Females build suspended pear-shaped nests, sometimes 2 feet long, from high branches, often over water.
• Habitat

  Forages and nests in lightly wooded areas, parks, wildlife refuges, farms, orchards, thorn forests, and riparian areas.