Greetings All,
As if often the case, the most illuminating commentary about birds like the
Newport oriole occurs in private exchanges. Before ever posting to the
ID-Frontier listserv, we (Shawneen and I) sent a note with the link to my photo
gallery to Paul Lehman. Paul lives in San Diego and formerly in Santa Barbara,
CA, where he spends much of his winter birding working residential
neighborhoods looking for orioles and other oddities around hummingbird feeders
and ornamental flowering plants. He sees many Bullock's and Orchard Orioles
each winter, thus we knew that he could offer some authoritative comments about
the variability in their appearance. He sent the response pasted below, to a
group of about six of us, including Alvaro Jaramillo, whose comments have
already been shared in earlier posts by me and Tim Janzen.
I'd like to add a little comment that this bird--at least on my computer
monitor--looks unusual for any female-type Bullock's Oriole even in
winter. I see over a dozen Bullock's every winter here in San Diego (and
formerly in Santa Barbara) and basically none look like this. While much
of this bird DOES look fairly good for a Bullock's, what is odd, of
course, is the large extent of color underneath and that at least on my
computer that color looks almost entirely yellow, and I fail to see the
orangey tones others are seeing. Of course I am NOT saying that such
tones are not there, but the combo of both extent and quality of said
color is NOT what I see in wintering Bullock's--which are regular where
I live in small numbers (and all ages/sexes). Some dull female Bullock's
are yellow-and-slight-orange mix, bordering on almost entirely yellow,
but the yellow is a different (duller, paler) quality and those
dull-colored birds almost invariably also show the maximum amount of
grays and off-whitishes to underparts as well--very unlike this bird
appears on my computer.
Yes, I think it a Bullock's (or a hybrid), but it isn't at all typical
for the time of year.
Paul
Almost immediately, Alvaro post the following response:
Well put Paul, I have never seen anything like this, anywhere, even
in specimen trays. I can dig it up, but there is a paper (Sievert Rohwer??)
that analyzes a hybrid oriole or two and suggests they have a mix of molt
strategies taken from each parental species! I don't know if that paper has
stood the test of time, but it was interesting. Hybrids may also show a more
intermediate migration route and wintering area, I think that was in that
paper too. In any case any oddities in molt may not only be due to where it
is wintering, but maybe because it is not a pure Bullock's.
Regards
Alvaro
On a side note, Peter Pyle continues to be curious about the molt of this bird
and he has requested one of Wayne Hoffman's
earlier photos, that seems to show a partially grown outermost secondary (if I
have counted flight feathers correctly). He may
offer some additional thoughts on that in a week or so.
The feedback from these experts is certainly welcomed and sheds some additional
light on this confounding oriole. I would
encourage anyone birding the Newport area to stop in and check out this
interesting oriole. If it stays til spring, we may get
more answers. If you have photos that you think might be good additions to the
gallery that I have created, feel free to send
them to me and I can add them. Wayne, if you can resend me your spread-wing
shot, I would love to add that one and I
know that Ram Papish got some killer shots on the day of the Yaquina Bay CBC.
Offhand, I can't remember when this bird first appeared. Can someone tell me
when it was first seen.
Dave Irons
Portland, OR
