Moriche Oriole
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| Icterus chrysocephalus (Linnaeus, 1766) |
The Moriche Oriole, Icterus chrysocephalus, is a passerine bird in the New World family Icteridae. It should not be confused with the unrelated Old World orioles in the family Oriolidae.
It breeds in northern South America in eastern Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad and the Guianas, and south to eastern Ecuador, Paraguay and northern Brazil. The Trinidadian population may have originated from recent colonisation or escapes.
The Moriche Oriole is a bird closely associated with Moriche Palms, and therefore is found in the swamp forests or savanna where that tree occurs. Its nest is a long hanging basket of grass and other plant fibres, suspended from the end of a Moriche Palm branch. The normal clutch is two dark-spotted pale blue or white eggs.
This is a 22 cm long, 42 g weight bird, slim with a long tail and thin decurved bill. It has mainly black plumage, apart from a bright yellow crown, rump, thighs and wing epaulets. The sexes are similar, but the juvenile bird is dark brown rather than black, with duller yellow patches.
This bird eats mainly insects, but will also take nectar and some fruit.
The song of the Moriche Oriole is a squeaky whistling heaaa-wheeooo-heaaa. This is an often-conspicuous species near its favoured tree, and usually occurs singly or in pairs.
It is affected to some extent by trapping for the cagebird trade, but can cope with heavy disturbance to its habitat as long as some Moriche Palms remain.
[edit] Taxonomic note
In 2005 the South American Checklist Committee lumped Icterus cayanensis and I. chrysocephalus into I. cayanensis.
[edit] References
- New World Blackbirds by Jaramillo and Burke, ISBN 0-7136-4333-1
- Birds of Venezuela by Hilty, ISBN 0-7136-6418-5
- Birds of Trinidad and Tobago by ffrench, ISBN 0-7136-6759-1
