Spotlight:

ReWild Mission Bay Project

Bird of the Month:  Hooded Oriole

Fun Facts About the Hooded Oriole: 

• Orioles are members of the blackbird family (Icteridae), along with meadowlarks and cowbirds, blackbirds, bobolinks and grackles. Birds in this family all have super strong, long, and pointed bills. They use these bills to get at food other birds can’t reach, such as prying apart thick patches of grass, opening up flowers, enlarging holes in tree bark, and digging into ripe fruits for their juice.*
• They can be drawn down from their perches with foods like grape jelly, mealworms, suet and nectar feeders.  When not feeding on nectar, orioles seek out caterpillars, fruits, insects, and spiders.
• Hooded Oriole song is a chattering mix of notes and cries that sometimes includes a few notes from their neighbors. In Arizona, they mimic Gila Woodpeckers and Ash-throated Flycatchers.*
• A few Hooded Orioles in southern California and Arizona hang around neighborhoods all winter long, taking advantage of free food at hummingbird feeders instead of migrating south.*
• Hooded Orioles expanded their range northward after people planted more ornamental palm trees around their homes and suburban areas. By 2017, Hooded Orioles were using parks and suburban yards as far north as Arcata, California.*
• Hooded orioles vary in color depending on their geographic location: Hooded Orioles in Texas and eastern Mexico are flame orange, but those in the southwestern United States and western Mexico are bright yellow.**
• The hooded oriole’s scientific name is Icterus cucullatus. The first part of the name comes from the Latin word icterus, which is a Latinized form of the Greek word ikteros meaning “yellow bird.” The word cucullatus is a Latin word meaning “hooded.” The oriole gets its name from the Latin aureolus, which means golden.
• Hooded Orioles in California earned the nickname “palm-leaf oriole” because of their tendency to build nests in palm trees. When the nest is suspended from palm leaves, the female pokes holes in the leaf from below and pushes the fibers through, effectively sewing the nest to the leaf. They weave a hanging-basket nest with plant fibers, grasses, vines and tree bark on the small twigs of a branch 6-45 feet in the air. This keeps them safe from most predators.*
• It takes as many as 12 days for an Oriole to weave its nest and only the female incubates and broods, both feed the young.
• Orioles will lay 4-5 eggs anywhere from April to June. The young will fledge as late as 30 days from egg laying.
• The hooded oriole is one of the few songbirds whose population is increasing, however, they appear to be sensitive to the spraying of pesticides, with birds succumbing directly from the poison and from the loss of their insect food sources.
• The oldest recorded Hooded Oriole was a male, and at least 6 years old when he was found in California in 1972, the same state where he had been banded in 1967. *

What’s happening at the Store:

• July 3-15: Save 15% on all Seed Cylinders and Characters (20% for DSC members)
• July 4: Closed for Independence Day
• July 20: In-store presentation: The Joy of Birdfeeding: 5 steps to birdfeeding mastery

What’s happening in San Diego:

Organizations we support: