Overview

Hooded Oriole: Medium oriole with bright orange -yellow head and nape, and black back, face, throat, and upper breast. Bill is slightly decurved. Black wings have two white bars. Tail is black. Forages in trees and bushes. Eats insects, caterpillars, and nectar. Strong direct flight.

Range and Habitat

Hooded Oriole: Breeds from central California, Nevada, central Arizona, southern New Mexico, and southern Texas southward. A few spend winters in southern California and southern Texas. Found in deciduous and riparian woodlands and human habitations, often near ranches or towns.

Breeding and Nesting

Hooded Oriole: Three to five white, pale yellow, or pale blue eggs with brown and purple spots are laid in a nest made of leaves and moss, lined with moss, grass, wool, hair, and feathers, and attached to the underside of a leaf or tree branch. Incubation ranges from 12 to 14 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Hooded Oriole: Diet consists mostly of fruits, nectar, and insects. Forages in shrubs and trees; uses its pointed bill to pierce flower bases to obtain nectar from agaves, aloes, hibiscus, lilies, and other tubular flowers.

Readily Eats

Suet, Jelly, Orange Halves, Raisins

Vocalization

Hooded Oriole: Song is a series of whistles, chatters, and warbles. Call is an ascending, whistled "wheeat."

Similar Species

Hooded Oriole: Altamira Oriole is larger and has orange shoulders. Bullock's Oriole has white wing patches and black eye-line. Baltimore Oriole has a black head; female is smaller and has shorter tail.