Puerto Rican Orioles: Puerto Rico Constitution and Five-One Icons

Summary: Puerto Rican orioles are spring and summer augurs and Puerto Rico Constitution anniversary month July 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One statehood icons.

Puerto Rican oriole (Icterus portoricensis) on the nest with chick; Patillas, southeastern Puerto Rico: Mary Vazquez‎ to Biodiversidad de Puerto Rico, via Facebook May 19, 2015

Puerto Rican orioles are most audio-visually apparent in the Commonwealth during spring and summer months and augur auspiciously as Puerto Rico Constitution anniversary month July 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One statehood icons.

Puerto Rico became a Spanish colony Nov. 19, 1493, when his second voyage to the New World brought Christopher Columbus (Oct. 31, 1451?-May 20, 1506) ashore. The Treaty of Paris April 11, 1899, concluded the Spanish-American War (April 21, 1898-Aug. 13, 1898) and conveyed Puerto Rico as a United States unincorporated territory. The Jones-Shafroth Act March 2, 1917, and the Puerto Rico Constitution July 25, 1952, respectively designate Puerto Ricans United States citizens and Puerto Rico a Commonwealth.

Darren P. Soto, United States Democratic Representative for Florida's 9th district, entered his proposed Puerto Rico Admission Act into the 116th Congress's agenda March 28, 2019.

Puerto Rican orioles fit among Puerto Rico Constitution anniversary month July 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One icons as parents at their most audio-visual March through July.

The monogamous life cycles of physically and sexually mature Puerto Rican orioles get annual breeding seasons from February through June within their 3,822.41-square-mile (9,900-square-kilometer) territorial range. Mothers-to-be hone stem-lined woven palm-frond baskets that hang from frondy, leafy undersides up through 13.12 feet (4 meters) above banana, palm or wild plantain tree bases. The Puerto Rico Constitution anniversary month July 2019 icons install cuplike hanging nests at branch or frond ends or twig forks within three to seven days.

Shiny cowbirds (Molothrus bonariensis) sometimes journey to the hanging nests of Puerto Rico Five-One statehood icons whose cradled incubators and nurseries thenceforth juggle shiny cowbird eggs.

Puerto Rican oriole mothers-to-be keep two to three blue-white or white, glossy, smooth eggs with brown-gray to lavender speckles and spots incubated 11 to 15 days.

Newborn Puerto Rican orioles look like blind, helpless hatchlings with downy, gray-white heads and backs; gray-yellow jaw-edged gape flanges; orange-yellow or pink-red mouths; and pink skins. They manage 11- to 14-day fledging along with surrogate-parented black-tufted, downy-gray, red-mouthed shiny cowbird hatchlings with gray-yellow bills, orange-pink skin, orange-white-yellow gape flanges and orange-yellow feet. Icterus portoricensis (from Greek ίκτερος, "jaundice" and Latin portorīcēnsis, "Puerto Rican"), noted by Henry Bryant (May 12, 1820-Feb. 2, 1867), nets black-billed, green-yellow-bodied, red-headed, red-breasted juveniles.

Mature Puerto Rico Constitution anniversary icons obtain lower-ranging female, upper-ranging male 1.19- to 1.38-ounce (34- to 39-gram) bodies and 3.62- to 3.81-inch (92.1- to 96.9-millimeter) wingspans.

Black-billed, black-headed, gray-limbed, 8.66-inch- (22-centimeter-) long, mature Puerto Rico Five-One statehood icons with black-brown eyes persevere up through 3,280.84-foot (1,000-meter) wooded wetland altitudes above sea level.

Physically and sexually mature Puerto Rican orioles queue up yellow lesser- and median-upperwing coverts, bellies, rumps, thighs and vents and yellow-tipped black uppertail and undertail coverts. They resort to leaf-gleaning for frogs, insects, lizards and spiders; nectaring; and rapid-beat flights for forest, garden, grove, mangrove, park, plantation fruits, grains, nuts and seeds. Puerto Rican orioles sound harshly musical in their check, chup, keek calls and high-pitched in their buzzy, warbled, 15- to 27-note whistled tchu and zzwhi songs.

Signature colors, friendliness, musicality and nest-making of turpiales boricuas (Puerto Rican orioles), as Puerto Rico Constitution and Puerto Rico Five-One icons, tap into socio-economically sustainable ecotourism.

Female and immature Puerto Rican orioles (Icterus portoricensis) have similar, all-yellow coloring; males have black and yellow coloring: SOPI @Aves_PuertoRico, via Twitter June 1, 2017

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

‎Puerto Rican oriole (Icterus portoricensis) on the nest with chick; Patillas, southeastern Puerto Rico: Mary Vazquez‎ to Biodiversidad de Puerto Rico, via Facebook May 19, 2015, @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/PRNatural/permalink/1610806039204168/

Female and immature Puerto Rican orioles (Icterus portoricensis) have similar, all-yellow coloring; males have black and yellow coloring: SOPI @Aves_PuertoRico, via Twitter June 1, 2017, @ https://twitter.com/Aves_PuertoRico/status/870301384138260480

For further information:

Baicich, Paul J.; and Colin J.O. Harrison. 2005. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Princeton NJ; and Oxford, England, UK: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides. Second edition.

BirdLife International 2016. "Icterus portoricensis." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22736385A95132520. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22736385A95132520.en.
Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22736385/95132520

Bouglouan, Nicole. "Puerto Rican Oriole Icterus portoricensis." Oiseaux-Birds > ID's Cards.
Available @ http://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-puerto-rican-oriole.html

Bryant, Henry. 3 January 1866. "Icterus. Icterus xanthomus Sclater." Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. X (1864-1866): 254. New York NY: William Wood & Co.; and London, England: Trübner & Co., 1866.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/9492236

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 July 2019. "Puerto Rican Flycatchers: Puerto Rico Constitution and Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
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Marriner, Derdriu. 23 June 2019. "Elfin-Woods Warblers: Caribbean American, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/elfin-woods-warblers-caribbean-american.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 June 2019. "Adelaide's Warblers: Caribbean American and Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/adelaides-warblers-caribbean-american.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 June 2019. "Puerto Rican Woodpeckers: Caribbean American, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/puerto-rican-woodpeckers-caribbean.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 June 2019. "Puerto Rican Bullfinches: Caribbean American, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/puerto-rican-bullfinches-caribbean.html

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/puerto-rican-nightjars-earth-month-2019.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 April 2019. "Puerto Rican Screech-Owls Earth Month 2019, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/puerto-rican-screech-owls-earth-month.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 April 2019. "Earth Month, Puerto Rican Green Mango Hummingbirds and Sea Hibiscus." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/earth-month-puerto-rican-green-mango.html

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/03/puerto-rican-emerald-hummingbirds-and.html

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Available @ https://twitter.com/Aves_PuertoRico/status/870301384138260480

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