- Oriolus sagittatus
Identification
25–28 cm (9¾-11 in)
- Olive-green head and back
- Grey wings and tail
- Cream underparts, streaked with brown
- Oliv-grey upper tail-coverts
- Bright red eye
- Reddish beak
Females can be distinguished from males by a paler bill, duller-green back, and an extension of the streaked underparts up to the chin.
Distribution
Australia and New Guinea.
Taxonomy
This is a polytypic species[1] consisting of 4 subspecies.
Subspecies
- O. s. magnirostris:
- Lowlands of southern New Guinea
- O. s. affinis:
- North Australia, (Broome, Western Australia to north-western Queensland)
- O. s. grisescens:
- North Queensland (Cape York Peninsula and islands of southern Torres Strait)
- O. s. sagittatus:
- East Australia (northern Queensland to Victoria and south-eastern South Australia)
Habitat
Semi-open woodlands and eucalypt forests.
Behaviour
Diet
Their diet consists of fruit, berries, seeds, nectar and insects. They will occasionally take the nestlings of small birds.
Breeding
The female builds a cup-shaped nest of bark and grass, bound with spider webs. This is attached by its rim to a horizontal fork on the outer-edge of the foliage of a tree or tall shrub. The female incubates the eggs alone, while the male helps to feed the young.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Walther, B. and P. Jones (2020). Olive-backed Oriole (Oriolus sagittatus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.olbori1.01
- Wikipedia
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Olive-backed Oriole. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 6 October 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Olive-backed_Oriole
External Links
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