| The Orchard Oriole is bright chestnut underneath, while the head, back, tails and wings are black with a thin straight bill. The females and immature birds are olive-green above with two white wing bars and yellowish underparts, with immature birds having a black throat. The immature males do not acquire their adult plumage until after their second summer. Though immature males may breed, that have less success in attracting a mate than the brightly colored adults.
The breeding habitat consists of orchards, parks and open woodlands, usually near water over the eastern two thirds of the United States. They find the habitat in southeastern Louisiana especially favorable. During the winter the bird will migrate to Mexico and south to the northern part of South America.
The song is a musical chirping warble. They are best heard in the spring soon after the male arrives. He will rise from his perch and sing to claim his territory and announce his presence to prospective mates. After the pair bond is formed, verbal displays become less prominent.
The clutch consists of 4 to 6 white or pale blue eggs scrawled with lilac or grayish-brown. The nest is an elaborately woven hanging pouch of long weeds and grassy filaments which is not nearly as deep as the nest of the Northern Oriole. It is usually placed in the forked branch of a tree usually 6 to 20 feet from the ground and hidden among the leaves. The eggs are incubated and brooded by both parents and hatch in about 12 days and leaving the nest about 12 days later. After the young fledge the nest the parents often divide the young and care for them separately. Cowbird parasitism is common for this bird. And they sometimes nest is the same trees where Eastern Kingbirds have made their nests.
The diet consist mainly of caterpillars and other insects small fruits and sometimes fruit blossoms and nectar. Farmers especially benefit from the consumption of small beetles, plant lice, cabbage worms and larvae of all kind.
Length: 9 to 10 inches.
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