Altamira Oriole - BirdForum Opus

Photo by Glen Tepke
Salineno, Texas, USA, March 2005

Icterus gularis

Identification

Adult, sexes virtually identical

• Large, heavily built (largest oriole in the USA)
• Mostly orange and black
• Very deep-based bill
  • Straight culmen
  • Pale flash at base of lower mandible short
• Black bib "attaches" to corner of bill
• Black lores
• Black tail and mantle
• Black wings
  • Lesser coverts same color as body
  • tip of greater coverts, base of primaries and some feather edges white

Immature bird. Photo by njlarsen
Salineno, Texas, USA, January 2012

Immature (1^st basic plumage) is similar to adult but:

• Less strongly orange
• Mantle often greenish or greenish-greyish
• Lesser coverts with white tips producing a second wing bar

Distribution

North and Central America: found from extreme southern Texas and north-eastern Mexico south to Nicaragua.

Taxonomy

Polytypic. Consists of six subspecies. ^[1]

• I. g. tamaulipensis:

• Southern Texas (lower Rio Grande Valley) to south-eastern Mexico (Campeche)

• I. g. flavescens:

• Coastal south-western Mexico (Guerrero)

• I. g. yucatanensis:

• South-eastern Mexico (Yucatán Peninsula), Cozumel Island and extreme northern Belize

• I. g. gularis:

• Arid tropical southern Mexico (Oaxaca) to Guatemala and El Salvador

• I. g. troglodytes:

• Southern Mexico (extreme southern Chiapas) and Pacific slope of Guatemala

• I. g. gigas:

• Interior southern Guatemala to Honduras and west-central Nicaragua

Habitat

Nest with adult bird next to it
Photo by njlarsen
Las Coloradas Rd, Yucatan, Mexico, May 2012

Nests in open woodlands.

Behaviour

Breeding

Seasonally monogamous and may be for life. They are almost always seen in pairs.

Nest is a very long woven pouch, attached to the end of a horizontal tree branch. Nest building starts as early as March usually producing one brood per season. However, more southerly populations can produce a second brood. In the event that they brood a second time, a second nest is always built.

Diet

This bird forages high in trees, sometimes in the undergrowth. They mainly eat insects and berries.

Flight

Swift, strong flight on rapid wing beats.

References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Altamira Oriole. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 3 January 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Altamira_Oriole

External Links

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