Yellow Oriole - Birds of the Guyanas 18

This stunningly beautiful bird is the Yellow Oriole (Icterus nigrogularis). And although it's almost completely yellow, it is a member of the blackbird family (Icteridae). It's a frequent visitor in our garden, looking for nesting material or for some fruit that we sometimes feed the birds. Fruit is just part of their diet, they mainly eat insects and some nectar.

The Yellow Oriole is a resident breeder that lives in northern South America. It prefers open woodland, fields with a lot of bushes and scrubs and urban areas like our garden. They breed the whole year round but mainly in spring. Their nest is shaped like a hanging basket that's suspended from the end of a branch, as you can see in the next picture. In the picture above you can see it pulling off a strain from a palm leave that it uses to weave its nest. Their normal clutch is three pale green eggs.

The Yellow Oriole is one of my favourite birds. It's not only very pretty but can sing nicely as well. They also have variety of calls like a cat like whine combined with chattering noises. They are not shy and must be quite intelligent to build such an intricate nest. The opening of the nest is at the top and the nest is situated as such that potential predators are discouraged from attempting to rob it. In this case the nest is hanging as high in the tree as possible and above a road.

The Yellow Oriole is a medium sized bird. It's about 21 cm long and weighs 38 grams. It's common in its range and they are not threatened.

Thank you for visiting my blog and happy birding.