Baltimore Oriole: Baseball Star, Garden Gate Icon, Maryland State Bird

Summary: Baseball star in 1901, Garden Gate icon in 2016 and Maryland state bird in 1947, the Baltimore oriole is north of Mexico in June and south October to April.

Baltimore oriole (Icterus galbula) valiantly mobs American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos), White Clay Creek State Park, New Castle County, northwestern Delaware: Keith, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Baltimore oriole assumes worldwide recognition as baseball star, as European, North Atlantic and South American vagrant, as Garden Gate bird of the month for June 2016 and as Maryland state bird.

Garden Gate magazine bases WILD SIDE department-featured honors upon the North American breeder’s flight from Caribbean and Central American snow-birding and readiness for garden hummingbird feeder-nectaring. Sporting, stately status commemorates Cecil Calvert's (Aug. 8, 1605-Nov. 20, 1675) coat-of-arms colors as 2nd Baron Baltimore and Province of Maryland's first Proprietor and Proprietary Governor. Black with orange and black with yellow respectively describe adult male and female Baltimore orioles and recall the Calvert black and gold in Baltimore baronic arms.

Golden and yellow looks of adult females and of all juveniles explain the scientific name Icterus galbula, from Greek for jaundice and Latin for little yellow.

The Baltimore oriole finds apple, cottonwood, elm, maple, sycamore and willow niches in deciduous forests, forest edges, open woodlands, river groves, shady backyards and suburban parks. Ear-flower (Cymbopetalum mayanum), gumbo-limbo (Bursera simaruba) and white ramoon (Trophis racemose) trees give Baltimore orioles overwintering niches in Caribbean, Central and northern South America’s coffee plantations.

Drooping branch tips hold each year’s new nests built in 4.5 to 8 days by mothers-to-be 6 to 60 feet (1.83 to 18.29 meters) above ground. The 3.5- to 8-inch (8.89- to 20.32-centimeter) nest’s 2.5-inch- (6.35-centimeter-) wide, 4.5-inch- (11.43-centimeter-) deep interior is accessed by a 2- by 3.25-inch (5.08- by 8.26-centimeter) entryway.

Hair joins with grapevine bark, Indian hemp, milkweed, Spanish moss, string and yarn to bolster exteriors and with cotton, fine grasses and wool to line interiors.

The mother-to-be keeps three to seven black- and brown-splotched, blue- to gray-white, oval, smooth-shelled, 0.91- by 0.61-inch (23.03- by 15.45-millimeter) eggs incubated 11 to 14 days. She lets her mate help defend the pouch-like, sock-shaped nest and feed the hatchlings, born with bodies sparsely covered with white down and with eyes closed. Fledglings, whose monogamous parents defend family territories within one tree, manage on nearby branches after the first 11 to 14 days of life spent as nestlings.

Diets need to include beetles, berries, crickets, flies, grasshoppers, nectar, snails, spiders and wasps and wildlife-unfriendly fall webworms and forest tent, gypsy moth, spiny elm caterpillars.

The Baltimore oriole’s daytime forages occasion skirmishes with predation-minded American crows, black-billed magpies, blue jays, common grackles, eastern screech owls and fox, gray and red squirrels.

Eight- to 10-inch (20.32- to 25.4-centimeter) lengths, 1.06- to 1.23-ounce (30- to 35-gram) weights and 10- to 12-inch (10.24- to 11.81-centimeter) wingspans pertain to adult specimens.

Gray bills and legs, mottled brown backs, heads and wings, two white wing bars, and yellow tails and underparts qualify as female and immature male looks. Males more than one year old reveal black backs, bills, heads and legs, black and orange tails, orange rumps and underparts and orange-shouldered, white-tipped black wings. Adults sing a flutelike, whistled Tewdi-tewdi-yewdi-tew-tidew! when not calling Hewli! and, during flight, Kleek! or when not chattering whereas nestlings flutter their wings and plead Pi-deedoo!

The Baltimore oriole takes off for Caribbean, Central and South America by October, only to turn up again to enjoy another June north of northern Mexico.

Baltimore oriole nestlings, Dutchess County, southeastern New York: Juliancoton, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Baltimore oriole mobbing American crow: Keith, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harassment.jpg

Baltimore oriole nestlings: Juliancoton, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baltimore_Oriole_chicks_in_NY.JPG

For further information:

Bachynski, Kathleen; and Kennedy, Sara. 2001. “Icterus galbula: Baltimore Oriole” (On-line). Diversity Web. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.
Available @ http://animaldiversity.org/site/accounts/information/Icterus_galbula.html

“Baltimore Oriole: Icterus galbula.” The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University > Visual Resources for Ornithology > Galleries.
Available @ http://vireo.acnatsci.org/search.html?Form=Search&SEARCHBY=Common&KEYWORDS=baltimore+oriole&showwhat=images&AGE=All&SEX=All&ACT=All&Search=Search&VIEW=All&ORIENTATION=All&RESULTS=24br /

“Baltimore Oriole: Icterus galbula.” Audubon > Birds > Guide to North American Birds.
Available @ http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/baltimore-oriole

“Baltimore Oriole: Icterus galbula.” Bird Stamps.org > Species.
Available @ http://www.bird-stamps.org/cspecies/20405300.htm

“Baltimore Oriole: Icterus galbula.” The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology > All About Birds > Bird Guide.
Available @ https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Baltimore_Oriole/lifehistory

“Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula).” The Internet Bird Collection > New World Blackbirds (Icteridae).
Available @ http://ibc.lynxeds.com/species/baltimore-oriole-icterus-galbula

BirdLife International. 2012. “Icterus galbula.” The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2012: e.T22724126A40052957.
Available @ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22724126/0

“Field Identification of Female and Immature Bullock’s and Baltimore.” Birding 1998, Volume 30 (4): 282-295.
Available @ http://static1.squarespace.com/static/54b9bb6fe4b07b4a7d145b55/t/54c861c5e4b0d61925c19e64/1422418373387/1998LeeBirchOrioleBirding.pdf

Foster, Mercedes S. March 2007. “The Potential of Fruit Trees to Enhance Converted Habitats for Migrating Birds in Southern Mexico.” Bird Conservation International, Volume 17, Issue 01, pp 45-61. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0959270906000554
Available @ http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=936408&fileId=S0959270906000554

“From the WILD SIDE: Baltimore Oriole, Icterus galbula.” Garden Gate. June 2016, Issue 129.

wildbirdhouse. 7 June 2010. "How to Attract Orioles to Your Backyard." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRfBQmJ_0FY