The common oriole has an interesting coloration and a beautiful voice.
This bird can make both beautiful and not so beautiful sounds. The oriole is the only representative of the oriole family.
Habitat
The oriole lives mainly in a temperate climate on the northern side of the equator, in deciduous forests with tall trees with a spreading crown. Avoids completely dark places.
The oriole is not afraid to live next to humans in gardens, parks or forest plantations near the road. They prefer to nest at an altitude of 2 thousand to 4 thousand meters above sea level. In the winter months it descends to a height of up to 900 meters.
Appearance
By the appearance of an adult oriole, one can easily determine the sex of an individual, since the female and male have different colors. The bright yellow male with black wings and a stripe running from the eye to the beak has such a provocative color to attract a female.
common oriole photo
She doesn’t have bright feathers, but she is beautiful in her own way. The female is a marsh color with dark spots on the chest and belly, gray-green wings and a brown beak.
Parameters of an adult:
- length from 23 to 27 cm;
- weight 55–65 grams;
- wingspan reaches 50 cm;
- flight speed is about 45 km/h.
Lifestyle
The oriole is a very active bird; it often hides in the crown of trees. Unsociable and modest, she silently jumps from branch to branch and builds nests high in the treetops.
male and female at the nest photo
If there is a lake or river nearby, the bird will not refuse to swim, because this is one of its favorite activities. The common oriole has practically no enemies. Cases of attacks by a variety of falcons and some other birds of prey have been recorded.
Nutrition
The main diet is animal feed. There are insects that only the cuckoo and the oriole eat. The winged one feeds on tree beetles, caterpillars, butterflies, spiders and other insects. The bird catches its lunch in flight or takes it out from under the bark of trees.
father feeding chick photo
When the time comes for berries and fruits, the oriole begins to feed on them, but does not forget about the main food - beetles. Eats the fruits of cherries, grapes, figs, pears and other berries and fruits. Feeds during the day, until three o'clock in the afternoon (when there are no chicks).
Reproduction
The oriole's breeding season occurs once a year. At this time, the male behaves demonstratively - he flies around the female, making unusual sounds, jumps on branches and spreads his tail, flapping his wings. If the female wants such courtship, she chirps and twirls her tail.
nest with oriole chicks photo
Both parents build the nest, the male looks for material, and the female forms the egg basket itself. To create it, birds use various materials, these can be dry grass stems, flexible sticks and more. Everything inside is insulated with down, leaves, cobwebs and even soft debris.
The oriole is one of the best forest songbirds and useful birds. According to the scientific classification, the oriole belongs to the class of birds, order - passeriformes, family - orioles.
2. The oriole family consists of more than 30 species, which are divided into two genera. Orioles are most common in the tropics and subtropics, including Africa, Asia, Australia and some parts of Europe.
3. The most common species: common oriole, green-headed oriole, striped oriole, African black-headed oriole, Indian black-headed oriole, Chinese black-headed oriole, nun oriole, masked oriole, great-billed oriole.
4. The oriole is a small bird with a bright color. The scientific name of the bird is Oriolus. The root of the word is similar to the Latin word aureolus, which means “golden.” Most likely, the bird acquired its name due to its colorful and rich coloring.
5. The distribution area of the oriole covers the territories of Europe and Asia, South-Western Siberia, North-West Africa.
Common oriole
6. The most common species is the common oriole. This bird lives in Europe, Western Siberia, and Asia. And they winter in Africa, Ceylon, Madagascar, and India.
7. The plumage of the common oriole is bright, the dominant colors are yellow, black, green. It usually has black wings, a silver-white belly, and a black tail tip. The oriole's beak is often brown. The birds weigh 50-90 grams, body length 24-25 cm.
8. Oriole I am not particular about food. Its diet includes fruits and small animals. This bird is the most common, unlike its other species. It is easy to recognize due to its bright colors, while other species have a more subdued range of colors.
9. Among the common orioles, it is customary to distinguish two subspecies. One of them has no spot in the area behind the eye, while the other has one.
10.Birds live in forests on trees, the locations of which are near bodies of water. Orioles prefer sparse forests of birch or pine.
African black-headed oriole
11. African black-headed orioles are the smallest of the entire family. The length of their wing is 12-15 cm. The color of the dorsal part is olive-golden-yellow, the head, wings and neck are black. The abdomen is golden yellow.
12. The African oriole can be found in the tropical forests of Africa, in Ethiopia. Orioles nest high in trees. Their masonry is cup-shaped. Closer to the equatorial African range, the clutch of an oriole contains only 2 eggs, and in the northern part - up to 4. The eggs are white-pink, as if strewn with reddish-brown drops.
13.The diet of the African oriole includes caterpillars and seeds, but mostly fruits, which is why it is considered a pest of fruit trees.
14. Orioles give priority to feeding in the first half of the day. At all other times of the day, birds can only have a snack.
Chinese black-headed oriole
16. Chinese black-headed orioles are common in the Indian, Siberian and Far Eastern regions. These are mainly arboreal birds that inhabit broad-leaved, mangrove forests, old park and garden areas, even in city centers.
17. In the forests and gardens inhabited by Indian black-headed orioles, the sounds of a high-pitched whistle, similar to the sound of a flute, are heard.
18. The nests of Chinese black-headed orioles are located on tall trees. Fruits and insects make up the bulk of the diet of these birds.
19. Sexual dimorphism of the oriole lies in the variety of plumage. Most often, males have a golden hue and black wings with a tail. In the female, green and yellow are dominant - in the upper part of the body and a white belly. The wings are gray-green.
20. The beak of both sexes is quite pronounced - it is long, the color is brown or dark pink. As for size, the male and female do not differ much in body weight and size. The only thing is the more noticeable elegance of the female, the elongation of the neck.
Indian black-headed oriole
21. The Indian black-headed oriole has a characteristic high-pitched whistle, similar to the sounds of a flute. Lives in India and East Pakistan.
22. Orioles reproduce once a year. The nest of representatives of this species is very similar to a basket of grass and leaves. Birds also use bast, birch bark, plant fibers, and pieces of moss to build a “house.”
23. By the end of May - beginning of June, a clutch occurs, in which there are 4-5 eggs, painted white with small black or brownish-brown spots of irregular shape.
24. The chicks are incubated exclusively by the female. After 2 weeks of incubation, the chicks begin to hatch. After another 2-2.5 weeks they leave the nest.
25. The oriole never winters in Europe. This is due to the upcoming difficulty in finding food, as well as intolerance to the low air temperatures common in Europe.
26. The oriole is a migratory bird. In August she flies to Tropical Africa. The oriole, in comparison with others, arrives much later - in mid-May, when it is already quite warm outside.
27. It is extremely difficult to see an oriole. The fact is that she likes to hide in the foliage, moreover, at a considerable height, at which it is impossible to see the oriole.
28. The oriole is a useful bird: it eats large quantities of forest pests - these are hairy caterpillars, which other birds do not eat because of their poisonous hairs.
29. Oriole chicks, like ugly ducklings, have a gray and motley color and are not famous for their magical singing.
30. Breeding orioles at home is a very difficult task, sometimes impossible. Even the most avid bird lovers will have an oriole that will live no more than 3 years without offspring.
31. The green oriole has smaller parameters than the common one. Its body length is no more than 24 cm, and its weight is up to 65 grams. The dominant color is green and all its possible shades. Most often, the green or yellow color of the oriole is only a small skein on the body; usually it forms a line along the neck and a stripe on the abdomen. The legs are colored blue, and the beak is dark brown.
32. The green-headed oriole inhabits the territory of Kenya and Tanzania. She is a tropical species of oriole. The most favorite habitat of these orioles is tropical and subtropical rain forests.
33. The oriole is a monogamous bird - it chooses a mate for life.
34. The name “oriole” itself has Slavic roots. Its cognate word is “moisture,” and it was believed that the oriole is a harbinger of rain.
35. The singing of the male oriole is especially significant; it is with the help of his voice that he attracts the female.
Striped oriole
36. The species of striped oriole is especially common in New Guinea and Australia. The striped oriole chooses eucalyptus forests for settlement.
37.The color of the striped oriole is less bright. Pastel colors predominate, muted green and gray dominate. Body length 26-28 cm. Weight 96 grams.
38. During the year, the female nurses 3-4 chicks. The parents feed the little birds, first with bugs and then with berries.
39. In general, orioles feed their chicks about 210 times a day - 10-15 times per hour.
40. At the age of 15-17 days, the little oriole can already fly.
41. The nun oriole is common in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Its habitat is tropical rainforests.
42.Color pattern of this species of oriole: yellow, black and green. The head of the oriole nun is always black, the beak is brown-red.
43. The large-billed oriole is common in Africa, especially on the island of Sao Tome. This is easy to explain - this island is famous for its dense forests, which orioles adore so much. The birds got their name due to their wide beak. It is characteristic only of this species of orioles.
44. The large-billed oriole does not exceed 22 cm in body length and 50-55 grams in weight. In this species, sexual dimorphism is especially noticeable: males have a black head, females have a lighter, gray head. In addition, in females you can notice streaks along the body. Both sexes have a pale pink beak, sometimes dark burgundy, yellow undertail, and dark wings.
45. Orioles return to their homeland late, by the end of April or the beginning of May, and the males arrive earlier than the females. After their return, the pairing begins.
46. Orioles love water very much, they often swim, which is why they try to choose a place of residence closer to bodies of water.
47. The masked oriole lives in Africa, the Sahara, among tropical rainforests, in dense bushes and thickets. The plumage is bright, yellow and golden colors dominate. The beak is flesh-colored.
48. On the list of orioles’ favorite ingredients, insects and fruits come first. This is due to the habitat - orioles nest in trees, so they have access to insects such as mosquitoes, butterflies, beetles, and some types of spiders.
49. Orioles also love to feast on pears, cherries, apricots, currants, and grapes.
50. Orioles are very peaceful and friendly birds. Among dozens of types of behavior, they are more likely to choose calm, phlegmatic observation rather than fuss.
Oriole (lat. Oriolus Oriolu)- one of the best forest songbirds and useful birds. Today, the oriole’s habitat is quite wide: from South-Western Siberia to southern Europe, this bird is also found in Asia Minor and Africa. These are migratory birds; as habitats they choose thickets near streams and rivers, light forests, old parks and gardens; the oriole avoids dense coniferous forests. It is not easy to see the oriole; it is very cautious and tries to stay in the shade of trees.
The plumage of representatives of this species is very beautiful: bright yellow undertail, golden yellow body with a dark stripe, black wings and tail. Young birds have a faded, dull color. In terms of size, the oriole is similar to the thrush: the weight of the individual is 70-90 grams, the wing length is 15-16 cm. Males from warm regions arrive earlier than females, this happens in late April - early May.
Varieties of oriole
The most common inhabitants of forests are common orioles; they winter in Africa, Ceylon, Madagascar, and India.
The African black-headed oriole is somewhat smaller, it has an olive-yellow color, a black head and neck, and a golden-yellow belly. Lives in Africa.
The Chinese black-headed oriole lives in India, Siberia, and the Philippines, inhabiting mangrove and deciduous forests.
The Indian black-headed oriole has a characteristic high-pitched whistle, similar to the sounds of a flute. Lives in India and East Pakistan.
Oriole nutrition and reproduction
The main food of the oriole is tree insects, butterflies, caterpillars, dragonflies, mosquitoes, beetles, even spiders. Many birds love to feast on ripe fruits - currants, cherries, cherries, grapes and others.
Orioles reproduce once a year. The nest of representatives of this species is very similar to a basket of grass and leaves. Birds also use bast, birch bark, plant fibers, and pieces of moss to build a “house.” The clutch is often 3-5 eggs of a cream or pinkish hue; they are incubated for 13-15 days. The female incubates the clutch, occasionally she is replaced by the “father of the family”, and the hatched chicks are fed by both parents. At the beginning of August, birds begin to move “to warmer climes.”
In terms of keeping in captivity and feeding, the oriole differs little from the oriole, however, it is a purely arboreal bird that rarely descends to the ground, so it will be more convenient for it if the feeder hangs on the net in such a way that it can eat from it while sitting on a perch or branch.
- The name Oriolus is a modification of the Latin word "aureolus", which means "golden";
- The name “oriole” itself has Slavic roots. Its cognate word is “moisture,” and it was believed that the oriole is a harbinger of rain;
- The oriole can make many sounds: from a melodic whistle to loud chirping. A worried bird makes creaking and unpleasant sounds, for which it received the nickname “forest cat”;
- Orioles love water very much and often swim, which is why they try to choose a place of residence closer to bodies of water.
Top of summer. The brightest, warmest and most fragrant time. On the forest edges, black maple bushes glow with clusters of red fruits. The midday breeze, flying into the linden tracts, brings with it the honey spirit of blooming lindens. And the most fragrant wild berry, strawberry, ripens when warmed up. A thick mixture of herbal odors hangs in the heated air above the hayfields. At night, the orchid of the northern forests - Lyubka - smells fragrant. But there are fewer and fewer bird songs in the forests day by day. Shortly before the equinox, one after another, the nightingales stop singing. After them, busy feeding the second broods, the thrushes fall silent, and the number of singing finches and pipits diminishes. In the morning, while the pleasant freshness lingers under the green canopy, the cuckoo will crow and lose count every now and then, the willow will sing, the robin will repeat the spring song several times, the tit and bunting will ring. And at noon, when the overheated forest smells of pine resin, only the cooing of a turtle dove, softened by the heat, and the iridescent whistle of an oriole are heard from the tops of the trees.
Many forest feathered singers, even the most famous ones, are little known by sight. Especially those that do not sing in plain sight and do not fall from the trees to the ground. During the two and a half to three months of the oriole’s stay in its homeland, you can hear the voice of the flute bird every day, but never see it.
Once I asked myself a question: is there at least one copse, at least one grove on both sides of the Don, where at the beginning of summer the voice of an oriole would not be heard? No, it wasn't found. In some forests there were no birds that cannot live without water, in others there were no suitable trees for the inhabitants of the hollows, in others, where no bushes grew, there were no those who build nests in the bushes. And the orioles were whistling everywhere. And not only in forests - in parks and squares of cities and towns, from May to August, black and yellow birds sing and meow. In forest belts, in old gardens, where there are trees at least twice the height of a person, they can live, rarely catching the eye, but constantly announcing their presence with an iridescent “fiu-liu-liul.” They are not attracted only to young pine forests without any admixture of other species. There is nothing here or anything to build a nest on. A pine tree becomes a suitable tree for nesting orioles when it is over fifty years old, when it stops growing upward, but on the side branches a lot of convenient forks appear on which, according to all the rules, a nest-basket can be attached.
The range of the oriole in Europe and Western Siberia is within the range of the linden tree and extends beyond it only in Kazakhstan. Only the northern borders do not coincide: the oriole does not reach the high-latitude areas where this tree grows. The range of another oriole, the black-headed oriole, which lives in the Far East, also covers the range of linden species growing in those parts. The linden tree, unattractive to leaf-eating insects, cannot feed the oriole; its fruits are also inedible for the oriole. However, this is a bast breed, and the basket bird definitely needs to tear off some bast to make the matting base of the basket nest. One withered twig is enough to build a light cane, which is then covered with herbal grass, roots, feathers, birch bark and other rags. In the city, instead of bast, scraps of twine and tow are often used, and instead of birch bark and feathers, bus tickets are used. Where there is no linden tree, elm and even apple sponge are suitable.
The oriole is a bird of starling height, but looks slightly larger than the starling, whose tail and wings are shorter than its own. And she is especially beautiful. The male, as is often the case with birds, is more elegant than the female: all bright yellow, and the wings are black, with a narrow yellow “mirror” (in old birds it fades), the tail is black and yellow, only two feathers are black. Red eyes with black dots, reddish beak. Only three colors in the bird's outfit. And three types of signals.
Most often, a loud and strong whistle is heard, distinct, soft and musical. It is so pleasant and soft that it seems to be flying out of the lips, and not from the sharp beak (almost every starling repeats it in the spring, long before the arrival of the very first oriole). The beautiful, light and gentle sounding name of the bird - “oriole”, one of the most musical folk names of birds, was given to it precisely for this whistle. To some extent, it also characterizes the appearance of the oriole, bright and graceful.
By whistling, the oriole announces its arrival, the timing of which is characterized by amazing consistency: no matter what spring it is on the Russian Plain, in the second week of May a loud flute call will certainly sound in its oak groves. Often the arrival coincides with the flowering of gardens. The leaves on the trees at this time are still light, small and sparse; the late oaks have not yet blossomed. These days you can see several orioles at once: black and yellow males, as if playing or competing, chase each other in the translucent crowns. They are not shy, but they come to the ground so rarely that it seems that they do not need it at all.
In June, the sharp and not very pleasant to hear cries of the oriole, similar to a cat’s cry, are more often heard, for which it is called the forest cat. Such intonations in the bird and animal world express irritation, displeasure, and threat. This is her battle cry. She warns them, with him she attacks those who encroach on the site, the nest, who happen to be nearby. The brave bird decisively rushes at the magpie, at the crow, and is not shy even in front of the goshawk. She does not trust the rather peaceful rook and drives him away with the same fury as the most notorious robbers of other people's nests. Having an advantage in speed and maneuver, the oriole deftly strikes from above, while the rook runs away, unable to defend itself in flight.
The oriole also has purely family sounds. Before the chicks appear in the nest, when the female is incubating, the male sings a quiet song in a calm atmosphere, which does not at all fit in with either the beautiful whistle or the luxurious appearance of the singer. Some kind of quiet, awkward and unintelligible chirping without beginning or end. It sounds a little like the winter song of a jay or house sparrow. If the rustling of leaves, songs and cries of other birds do not interfere, then by listening carefully, you can catch other people’s voices in this chirping. It turns out that the oriole has some of the abilities of a mediocre mockingbird. And as if ashamed of his inability, the male hums a quiet song just for himself, hiding in the thick of the foliage, as if hiding from curious listeners.
The oriole hides its nest very skillfully. A neat basket is woven in the fork of a thin branch, but no matter how the wind shakes the tree, no matter how it bends or ruffles the branch, the eggs do not roll out of such a basket, because the bird makes a roll along its inner edge. The design of the nest has neither the heaviness of a thrush's structure, nor the bulkiness and sloppiness of a shrike's nest. Among the birds of her size, there are no more skilled builders than she.
The oriole is careful near the nest, and encounters enemies away from it: the bright whiteness of the large eggs with rare black specks is very noticeable from above. And the chicks sit quietly in the nest. But when they leave it, taking advantage of the perfection of their disguise, they become, on the contrary, very noisy, almost every minute emitting a loud three-time “giggle.”
This is not a begging, but a downright demanding “giggle” - the sound is already July. This is how the fledglings let their parents know where everyone is sitting. The loud voices of the chicks can be heard far away, like lighthouse signals. It is more profitable and safer for them to sit still and remind themselves than to follow their parents when they are looking for food. And a stationary oriole cub is less likely to be detected by a feathered predator.
The plumage of a young oriole does not have the brightness of an adult bird, and it is almost impossible to notice it also because in the tree crowns there are already leaves faded and yellowed from the July heat, next to which the hidden short-tailed fledgling is like a leaf hanging on a branch. It’s as if everything is in plain sight and at the same time indistinguishable from two steps. He sits as if he is dozing, but the more he wants to eat, the more often he shouts out his “hee-hee-hee”. When danger is imminent, the mother's alarming order makes the chick fall silent, no matter how hungry it is.
By the end of July, when young orioles begin to hunt on their own, they do not become more silent. Every day, under the supervision of their parents, they practice adult “conversation”: they chirp, meow, whistle and almost never “giggle”. Only their whistling and meowing are not real yet: they lack both voice and skill. Therefore, instead of the beautiful “fiu-liu-liul”, it turns out something like a hasty “fin-ti-tir-liu”.
Being an invisible bird, the oriole searches in the crowns of oaks, birches, poplars for green and greenish invisible caterpillars, smooth hawk moth caterpillars, moths, corydalis, leaf rollers, cutworms, sawfly larvae, stuffed with chewed tree leaves. Hairy silkworm caterpillars are also eaten as food, but this is secondary. On such juicy food, neither the adults nor the chicks in the nest experience thirst. And in the driest summer, from arrival to departure, a family of orioles can live in a waterless forest, where there are no springs or puddles even after heavy rains. A few drops of morning dew, a few rain coughs from the leaves are enough to keep you from drinking all day. And from mid-summer wild berries begin: elderberry, bird cherry, strawberry, raspberry, honeysuckle, lily of the valley, which orioles like no less than thrushes.
Orioles fly away to their African wintering grounds as families in August, having stayed in their homeland for only three months. Calling each other in the morning, they get together. At this time there are few bird voices, and there are no songs at all, and it seems that in the whole forest there are only orioles and the chiffchaffs and willow warblers accompanying them. A month and a half before the arrival of golden autumn, they fly away, but even if they had stayed for the forest carnival, they still would not have found a single leaf in the maple grove that could compete in brightness with the plumage of the flute bird.
The oriole is a yellowish-green bird. The male oriole is handsome: his plumage is golden-yellow with black wings and a black tail. Small yellow spots are visible along the edge of the tail and on the wings. A black stripe runs from the beak to the eye - the “bridle”. The females are “dressed” modestly: they have a greenish-yellow upperparts and whitish underparts with dark longitudinal streaks, their wings are greenish-gray.
The oriole's beak is brown or reddish-brown, quite long and strong. The iris is red.
The oriole's song is quite long: it begins with quiet sounds, barely audible even at close range, alternating with creaking and chirping sounds, and ends with a short flute whistle ("fitiu-liu").
The oriole is also called a “forest cat,” and that’s why. A worried bird, interrupting its drawn-out singing, makes an unpleasant sound, reminiscent of the cry of an angry cat.
Among the branches of bushes, the oriole can be distinguished by its bright yellow golden tail. She settles in pine forests, birch and oak groves.
It flies to us from hot Africa, from the shores of the island of Madagascar, and sometimes even from the Far North, but already in August it flies away again with its offspring.
The bird almost always builds its nest on deciduous trees, attaching it to the upper branches. Outwardly, it is very similar to a basket, lined to match the wood.
The nest tray, like all birds, is lined with birch bark, scraps of wool, and feathers.
In late spring - early summer, chicks will appear in the nest. They are very gluttonous. But after two weeks, despite the fact that the young birds are still very poor at flying, they will still be destined to leave their nest and take care of themselves. Orioles eat many harmful caterpillars, bugs, beetles and large flies, and during the ripening of fruits and berries they willingly feed on fruits.
Voice of the oriole:
Your browser does not support the audio element.Text used:
A. Gorkanova. "Migratory and wintering birds of Russia. Thematic dictionary in pictures"
Artist: Ekaterina Reznichenko
