Oh, that is great Matt! That camera that you and other birders have is
something! Thanks for continuing to teach us! I'm also pleased that someone
other than me recorded a bird song! ;)
Stacy Burleigh
Melrose
On Thu, May 28, 2015 at 9:21 PM, Matthew G Hunter <matthewghunter@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Hi Folks,
Just getting to uploading some photos/sound of the Baltimore Oriole.
Fishermen, birders, and people of all generations have loved to tell
stories. Here's mine: I was in the house looking over my morning house
fix-it project when I heard some loud single and repeated (4 or 5 times),
rich, descending notes. As they "sunk in," they did not match anything in
my metal sound database. Oriole? Tanager? I get excited when I hear
something I do not recognize for certain, so I grabbed my bins and camera
and headed out the door. The bird calls had already moved south a hundred
yards to the border of our property. I walked quickly to our fence, hoping
it would be there. When I got there, it was calling another 50 yards to the
south. I scanned and scanned. I could not see it. The calls were fairly
simple, so I began imitating them with my own whistles. In just 10 seconds
the bird flew back north to the tree canopies above me. As I continued to
imitate the bird now and then, it seemed to try to find me, though not
coming far down from the upper canopy. Finally I was able to see the bird
in my bins and obtain some photos--with shaky hands--and a voice recording
with my cell phone. The bird mostly did the single and repeated (4 or 5)
notes, and only a couple times did a bit of a fuller song. Eventually, it
again flew south to the next patch of trees, and I did not want to bother
it again. I have not been able to look for the bird again.
Photos:https://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewghunter/sets/72157653211355319
Sound Recording: www.umpquabirds.org/BAOR2L.mp3
(two single notes and one repeated note, as well as dog, chickens, ...)
Since the species hybridizes with Bullock's Oriole, I checked out a few
features to see if this looked like a pure individual, and it does:
*All dark head
*Orange shoulder area (median coverts)
*No big white patch on wing like Bullock's (greater coverts)
*Wide dark area across base of tail
*Orange corners at end of tail
Unrelated to hybridization (?), I cannot explain the lack of white tips on
the greater coverts. Looking at photos online, there seems to be quite a
bit of variation from just white edges to quite white tips. I don't know if
this variation is associated with age, or something else, or just
individual variation.
The Oregon Bird Records Committee has accepted 19 previous records for the
state (http://orbirds.org/obrcrecordsmay2015.pdf). As far as I know this
is the first record for Douglas County.
Matt Hunter
Melrose, OR
