These photos were taken at Vassar Farm in Dutchess County, New York. Originally I immediately thought it was of a juvenile orchard oriole, but looking at them on closer inspection, there are a few features that may say otherwise. The photos look closer to a juvenile hooded oriole, which would be a big deal for here.
The bill looks curved like a hooded, the black on his neck goes down pretty far like a hooded, there is only one white wing bar instead of two like a hooded, and the size, compared to the red-winged blackbird in the one shot is more consistent with the size of a hooded.
I am by no means an expert, which is why I need to ask for help with this ID. I have provided all the photos I got.
This is an interesting one Derrick, and maybe this is a good opportunity to show people how you go through the ID process for a difficult bird. You have been through this Derrick so for the benefit of others:
1. We know it's an oriole because of the overall shape, size, bill shape and colouration- greenish-yellow and with black around the face.
2. We know that two species of orioles occur in your area- Baltimore and Orchard. This is a very important part of the ID process because you can eliminate often many other species not in range, and move forward on the ID of species on the in-range "short-list".
3. We know that females in these two species don't show black on the face so we have a male.
4. We know that adult males of the two candidates show striking orange or orange-brown colouration so we are dealing with a young bird because of its overall yellow-green colour.
5. This latter feature can be used to eliminate the Baltimore because it would show more light orange rather than green-yellow.
6. So we have narrowed it down to a young male Orchard Oriole, but is there anything about this bird that might suggest another species vagrant to New York? Note at this point that some of the "logic" above may go out the window because other species may not fit the same process of confirmation or elimination. This is when things can get tough because you may be dealing with a lot more candidate species, many of which you are unfamiliar with.
7. Derrick identified several features that that do not fit an Orchard Oriole, and it should be mentioned at this time that these "anomalies" need to be pretty compelling. Individuals within a species vary and no single bird is going to match exactly with an image in a field guide, or a photograph. You can't suddenly assume you have a vagrant or rarity just because you don't have a perfect match. It is prudent to be very cautious at this point.
8. Derrick identified several features of this bird that did not fit exactly with an Orchard Oriole, and which seemed to fit with a similar species- the Hooded Oriole, from the southwest of the US. These include the lack of two prominent wing-bars, bill shape, overall size (a difficult one to judge in the field), and the extent of the black bib.
So I agree that this could be a Hooded Oriole. However, some features of this bird still suggest Orchard rather than Hooded. Sibley shows a short, squared-off tail for the Orchard, both features of which Derrick's bird has. Sibley also shows a more extensive black mask around the eye and lores (between eye and bill) in the Orchard, again which this bird has. Derrick's bird does have two wing bars, like the Orchard, but I agree that the lower one is pretty subdued and could not be called "prominent".
So is all this enough to make a significant ID move away from the local incumbent to a rare vagrant? All states and provinces in North America have rare-bird committees whose task it is to decide these very questions based on detailed reports from observers, and more and more these days based on photographs.
Finally, I'll apologise for the lengthy post and just say that someone familiar with the Hooded Oriole may be able to immediately confirm or eliminate the ID based on Derrick's images. Looking forward to other responses.
Last edited by John Chardine; 06-20-2010 at 08:18 AM.
John, that was a great logical process you posted. I've gotten some local responses as well, who simply won't rule out a hooded oriole but also won't call it an orchard oriole, putting me into an interesting predicament. I may try to revisit the location this week to see if he shows up again and actually sings this time, which would be the deal breaker.
Oriole ID help
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