- Icterus spurius
Identification
9-10 in. Chestnut underneath, black head, back, tail, and wings, thin straight bill. Females and immatures are olive-green above with two white wing-bars and yellowish underparts; immature males have a dark throat.
Distribution
Eastern United States from eastern Montana and eastern New Mexico east and north to southern Michigan, central New York, and Massachusetts south into central Mexico; absent from southern Florida. Winters in Central America south to Colombia and Venezuela. Rare to casual vagrant in western United States.
Taxonomy
This is a monotypic species.
Habitat
Trees along streams, rivers and lakes, and on farms and parklands.
Behaviour
The diet includes insects, berries and nectar; also flower parts.
They build a deep, hanging cup nest, although woven of grass fibres, hidden within dense foliage, often in a dense cluster of trees. The young leave the nest 11 to 14 days after hatching.
