Olive-backed oriole

Oriolus sagittatus

TAXONOMY

Coracias sagittata Latham, 1802, "Nova Wallia Australi" = central coast, New South Wales, Australia.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: Green oriole, white-bellied oriole; French: Loriot sagittal; German: Streifenpirol; Spanish: Oropéndola de Lomo Olivo.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

10.2–11 in (26–28 cm); 3.5–3.8 oz (90–105 gm), both sexes. Plain olive upperparts; wings and tail dark gray with white edging. Whitish underparts with dark steaks. Eyes red.

DISTRIBUTION

Coastal and subcoastal northern and eastern Australia up to about 500 mi (800 km) inland, between Kimberley Division and Victoria, also dry south New Guinea.

HABITAT

Open eucalypt forest and tall woodland; also paperbark (Melaleuca) woodland in north Australia and New Guinea.

BEHAVIOR

Solitary in forest/woodland canopy, pairing only to breed. Gives low carrying glottal warble from set perches throughout year, and incessantly, with mimicry, when breeding. Widely nomadic after breeding.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Forages opportunistically on small soft fruits in trees and tall shrubs and on insects such as leaf beetles, mantids, ants, and caterpillars; mostly captures prey while quietly hopping and gleaning upper and outer branches of trees.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Monogamous; female builds nest (about 14 days) and incubates (17–18 days), but both sexes feed young, fledging them in 15–27 days.

CONSERVATION STATUS

No populations under significant threat anywhere.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

None known.

Olive-backed Oriole
Conservation status
Least Concern
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Oriolidae Genus: Oriolus Species: O. sagittatus
Binomial name
Oriolus sagittatus (Latham, 1802)

The Olive-backed Oriole (Oriolus sagittatus) is a very common medium-sized passerine bird native to northern and eastern Australia and New Guinea. The most wide-ranging of the Australasian orioles, it is noisy and conspicuous. Not bright in colour, it is olive-backed with small dark streaks, with a light chest having black streaks. Females have cinnamon-edged wings and both genders have reddish bills and eyes.

Where the Yellow Oriole specialises in damp, thickly vegetated habitats in the tropical far north, the Olive-backed Oriole is more versatile, preferring more open woodland environments, and tolerating drier climates (but not desert). Common to very common in the north, Olive-backed Orioles are less frequently seen in the south, but nevertheless reach as far as south-eastern South Australia. Their range is from the very north of Western Australia across the east and south coasts to Victoria and the corner of South Australia. Most birds breed during the tropical wet season, but some migrate south to breed in the southern summer.

References

• BirdLife International (2004). Oriolus sagittatus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)