New World orioles | |
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Baltimore oriole, Icterus galbula | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Icteridae |
Genus: | Icterus Brisson, 1760 |
Type species | |
Oriolus icterus (Venezuelan troupial) Linnaeus, 1766 | |
Species | |
See text |
New World orioles are a group of birds in the genus Icterus of the blackbird family. Unrelated to Old World orioles of the family Oriolidae, they are strikingly similar in size, diet, behavior, and strongly contrasting plumage. As a result, the two have been given the same vernacular name.
Males are typically black and vibrant yellow or orange with white markings, females and immature birds duller. They molt annually. New World orioles are generally slender with long tails and a pointed bill. They mainly eat insects, but also enjoy nectar and fruit. The nest is a woven, elongated pouch. Species nesting in areas with cold winters are strongly migratory, while subtropical and tropical species are more sedentary.
The name "oriole" was first recorded (in the Latin form oriolus) by the German Dominican friar Albertus Magnus in about 1250, which he stated to be onomatopoeic, from the song of the European golden oriole.
One of the species in the genus, Bahama oriole, is critically endangered.
The genus Icterus was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the Venezuelan troupial as the type species. [1] [2] The name is the Latin word for a yellow bird, probably the Eurasian golden oriole. [3]
The genus name Icterus, as used by classical authors, referred to a bird with yellow or green plumage. Icterus is from Greek ἴκτερος (íkteros, “jaundice”); the ictērus was a bird the sight of which was believed to cure jaundice, perhaps the Eurasian golden oriole. [4] Brisson re-applied the name to the New World birds because of their similarity in appearance. [5]
The genus contains 32 extant species. [6]
Image | Common Name | Scientific name | Distribution |
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Scott's oriole | Icterus parisorum | Southwestern United States and south to Baja California Sur and central Mexico. | |
Yellow-backed oriole | Icterus chrysater | Belize, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela. | |
Audubon's oriole | Icterus graduacauda | westernmost range extends from Nayarit south to southern Oaxaca, whereas the eastern range stretches from the lower Rio Grande valley to northern Querétaro | |
Jamaican oriole | Icterus leucopteryx | Jamaica and on the Colombian island of San Andrés | |
Orange oriole | Icterus auratus | the Yucatán Peninsula and far northern Belize | |
Altamira oriole | Icterus gularis | subtropical lowlands of the Mexican Gulf Coast and northern Central America, the Pacific coast and inland | |
Yellow oriole | Icterus nigrogularis | northern South America in Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad, the Guianas and parts of northern Brazil, (northern Roraima state, and eastern Amapá) | |
Bullock's oriole | Icterus bullockii | as far north as British Columbia in Canada and as far south as Sonora or Durango in Mexico | |
Streak-backed oriole | Icterus pustulatus | Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and an occasional visitor to the Southwestern United States | |
Black-backed oriole | Icterus abeillei | Mexico. | |
Baltimore oriole | Icterus galbula | Canadian Prairies and eastern Montana in the northwest eastward through southern Ontario, southern Quebec and New Brunswick and south through the eastern United States to central Mississippi and Alabama and northern Georgia. | |
Yellow-tailed oriole | Icterus mesomelas | southern Mexico to western Peru and northwestern Venezuela | |
Spot-breasted oriole | Icterus pectoralis | Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua. | |
White-edged oriole | Icterus graceannae | Ecuador and Peru. | |
Campo troupial | Icterus jamacaii | northeastern Brazil | |
Venezuelan troupial | Icterus icterus | Colombia, Venezuela, and the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, and Puerto Rico. | |
Orange-backed troupial | Icterus croconotus | Guyana, Brazil, Paraguay, and eastern Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru | |
Bar-winged oriole | Icterus maculialatus | El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. | |
Black-vented oriole | Icterus wagleri | El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and the United States. | |
Hooded oriole | Icterus cucullatus | Baja California Sur, the Mexican east coast, and Belize. | |
Black-cowled oriole | Icterus prosthemelas | eastern half of mainland Central America. | |
Orchard oriole | Icterus spurius | United States, Mexico | |
Cuban oriole | Icterus melanopsis | island of Cuba and the neighboring Isla de la juventud | |
Bahama oriole | Icterus northropi | the Bahamas. | |
Martinique oriole | Icterus bonana | Martinique, French West Indies | |
Puerto Rican oriole | Icterus portoricensis | Puerto Rico | |
Montserrat oriole | Icterus oberi | Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, | |
Saint Lucia oriole | Icterus laudabilis | main island of St. Lucia | |
Hispaniolan oriole | Icterus dominicensis | Hispaniola. | |
Orange-crowned oriole | Icterus auricapillus | eastern Panama, Colombia and Venezuela. | |
Variable oriole | Icterus pyrrhopterus | Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. | |
Epaulet oriole | Icterus cayanensis | Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, and Suriname. | |
One extinct species, the Talara troupial (Icterus turmalis), is known from fossil remains recovered from the Talara Tar Seeps of northwestern Peru, and likely went extinct during the late Quaternary. It may have been a close associate of Pleistocene megafauna communities, and may have gone extinct following their collapse in populations. [7]
Orioles are colourful Old World passerine birds in the genus Oriolus, the type genus of the corvoidean family Oriolidae. They are not closely related to the New World orioles, which are icterids that belong to the superfamily Passeroidea.
Garrulus is a genus of Old World jays, passerine birds in the family Corvidae.
Pica is a genus of seven species of birds in the family Corvidae in both the New World and the Old.
The curlews are a group of nine species of birds in the genus Numenius, characterised by their long, slender, downcurved bills and mottled brown plumage. The English name is imitative of the Eurasian curlew's call, but may have been influenced by the Old French corliu, "messenger", from courir , "to run". It was first recorded in 1377 in Langland's Piers Plowman "Fissch to lyue in þe flode..Þe corlue by kynde of þe eyre". In Europe "curlew" usually refers to one species, the Eurasian curlew.
Turnstones are two bird species that comprise the genus Arenaria in the family Scolopacidae. They are closely related to calidrid sandpipers and might be considered members of the tribe Calidriini.
The Baltimore oriole is a small icterid blackbird common in eastern North America as a migratory breeding bird. It received its name from the resemblance of the male's colors to those on the coat-of-arms of 17-th century Lord Baltimore. Observations of interbreeding between the Baltimore oriole and the western Bullock's oriole Icterus bullockii, led to both being classified as a single species, called the northern oriole, from 1973 to 1995. Research by James Rising, a professor of zoology at the University of Toronto, and others showed that the two birds actually did not interbreed significantly.
Pluvialis is a genus of plovers, a group of wading birds comprising four species that breed in the temperate or Arctic Northern Hemisphere.
Vanellus is the genus of waders which provisionally contains all lapwings except red-kneed dotterel, Erythrogonys cinctus. The name "vanellus" is Latin for "little fan", vanellus being the diminutive of vannus. The name is in reference to the sound lapwings' wings make in flight.
Gallinago is a genus of birds in the wader family Scolopacidae, containing 18 species.
Cowbirds are birds belonging to the genus Molothrus in the family Icteridae. They are of New World origin, and are obligate brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species.
The Venezuelan troupial is the national bird of Venezuela. It is found in Colombia, Venezuela, and the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, Trinidad, and Puerto Rico. Together with the orange-backed troupial and campo troupial, it was previously part of a superspecies simply named the troupial that was split.
Euphagus is a small genus of American blackbirds. It contains two extant species: Brewer's blackbird, Euphagus cyanocephalus, and rusty blackbird E. carolinus.
The black-naped oriole is a passerine bird in the oriole family that is found in many parts of Asia. There are several distinctive populations within the wide distribution range of this species and in the past the slender-billed oriole was included as a subspecies. Unlike the Indian golden oriole which only has a short and narrow eye-stripe, the black-naped oriole has the stripe broadening and joining at the back of the neck. Males and females are very similar although the wing lining of the female is more greenish. The bill is pink and is stouter than in the golden oriole.
The Montserrat oriole is a medium-sized black-and-yellow icterid.
The oriole blackbird is a species of bird in the family Icteridae. Its genus, Gymnomystax, is monotypic. It is a medium-sized yellow and black bird found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela, where its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, and swamps.
The campo troupial or campo oriole is a species of bird in the family Icteridae that is found in northeastern Brazil. At one time thought to be conspecific with the Venezuelan troupial and orange-backed troupial, it is now accepted as a separate species. It is a fairly common bird and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated it as a "least-concern species".
The orange-backed troupial is a species of bird in the family Icteridae. It is found in Guyana, Brazil, Paraguay, and eastern Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru. It is closely related to the Venezuelan troupial and Campo troupial, and at one time, all three were considered to be the same species.
The Hispaniolan oriole is a species of bird in the family Icteridae. It is endemic to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.
The convex-billed cowbird is an extinct species of bird in the family Icteridae, described in 1947 by Alden H. Miller. It is the only member of its genus, Pandanaris.
There are three extant species of bird in the genus Icterus that are named troupial, formerly considered one species: