The Baltimore Oriole - Icterus galbula – is Maryland's official state bird. Its preferred habitat is open woodland, forest edge, river banks, and small groves of trees. These birds have adapted well to human settlement and often feed and nest in parks, orchards, and backyards.

Description

Adults have a pointed bill and white bars on the wings. The adult male is orange on the underparts, shoulder patch and rump. All of the rest of the male is black. The adult female is yellow-brown on the upper parts with darker wings, and dull orange on the breast and belly.

Call

Single whistled notes function as contact calls. Common calls include a nasal jeet-jeet and a rattling chatter. Fledglings make loud nasal calls sounding like dee-dee-dee.  The song is a series of bright, slurred whistles, sometimes with prominent harsh or raspy notes. Both sexes sing, although the female song is usually simpler in pattern. Songs of individual birds vary considerably, but each sings a characteristic, recognizable song pattern.

Food

The Baltimore oriole mainly eats insects, nectar and berries. A wide variety of insects are eaten, which include beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, moths, flies, spiders, snails, and other small invertebrates. They eat many pest species, including tent caterpillars, gypsy moth caterpillars, fall webworms, spiny elm caterpillars, and the larvae within plant galls. These birds forage in trees and shrubs also making short flights to catch insects. They frequently visit flowering trees and vines in search of fruit and nectar.

Breeding

Baltimore Orioles build remarkable, sock-like hanging nests, woven together from slender fibers. The female weaves the nest and anchors her nest high in a fork in the slender upper branches of a tree. Building the nest takes about a week. The female lays 4 to 5 eggs in late spring or early summer and incubates them alone. Then, both the male and the female feed the young. Pairs make only one nesting attempt per year.

Conservation Status – Least Concern

Baltimore oriole populations appear stable over the long term.

Bird watching

Chesapeake Bay

Patuxent Research Refuge

Black Water NWR

Eastern Neck NWR

Cranesville Swamp Preserve

Battle Creek Cypress Swamp Sanctuary

Choptank Wetland's Kings Creek Preserve

Robinson Neck/Frank M. Ewing Preserve

Nassawango Creek Swamp Preserve