Orange Crush

A male Baltimore Oriole (Icterus gaibuta) of strikingly brilliant plumage was singing loudly in a maple tree when a female Oriole took a long flight and alighted in the same tree. The male flew to her, placed himself directly before her, facing her at a distance of a few inches and here struck successively two attitudes; in one his body was nearly upright, straight and tall, in the other it was bowed downward and forward with the head at the level of the feet. The wings were held closely at the sides. In passing quickly from one attitude to the other, over and over again, he moved up and down with a sharp jerk, rather than in an easy sweeping motion, and he made a very short pause each time before changing direction.

This is a very simple motion, one may say: just an exaggerated bowing: not very different from the bowing, nodding, or swaying of many birds in the excitement of their courting displays. True enough, and it is not until we look at the action from the point of vantage of the female bird and see in our mind's eye, as nearly as we can, just what she sees, that we understand its significance .

In the first position noted above, the orange of the breast glows before her, and so near her that it fills a wide arc with blazing color. Then, as the male bird bends swiftly forward, and the head comes down, the orange is blotted out by black, as by a camera shutter, and immediately, as the bird continues to bend forward, out flashes the orange color again, now on the rump. Witnessed at close quarters, the appearance of this maneuver must be as the bursting out of a great sheet of flame, its instantaneous extinction into darkness, a flaring up again: then darkness once more .

Published by the Smithsonian Institution between the 1920s and the 1950s, the Bent life history series of monographs provide an often colorful description of the birds of North America. Arthur Cleveland Bent was the lead author for the series. The Bent series is a great resource and often includes quotes from early American Ornithologists, including Audubon, Townsend, Wilson, Sutton and many others.

Bent Life History for the Baltimore Oriole - the common name and sub-species reflect the nomenclature in use at the time the description was written.


Baltimore Oriole
ICTERUS GALBULA (Linnaeus)

Contributed by Winsor Marrett Tyler
(Dr. Tyler died Jan. 9, 1934, at the age of 77. He assisted Mr. Bent with these life histories In various ways beyond the contribution of 37 complete histories.)




These birds are elusive, I'm always hoping and I got lucky this morning. The sliced oranges and grape jelly attract every other species, but they are remain uninterested. Perhaps this is why! Mrs. Oriole also showed off after a lovely bath, they are both so brilliant, another colorful follow up to yesterday's brilliant red Cardinal.


Today is Memorial Day and we're resting from all the work we did in the front yard yesterday. The old stone wall around the house from early 1800's was overgrown and we cut and hauled away brush and vines after planting annuals on the traffic island we tend at Dogcorner. Then I mowed at all three properties on our 'compound. The mowing photo was taken at my brother's lawn, by D. Don't ask me how my body feels today.

For the Record,
This day came in cooler, with clouds and sun. Heavy pine pollen is beginning to dust everything.