Weaver birds return to Vermont
05-24-2007 - What do crafts, music, sports, and colonialism have in common? A bird of course! One boldly patterned bird that nests in Vermont knows how to weave, sings a rich song, is the namesake of a famous sports team, and is named after early colonists from Europe.
Baltimore Oriole by Henry McLin
Baltimore Orioles have a striking orange and black plumage. When the first naturalists arrived in North America and discovered the bird, they likened the bird?s pattern to the first proprietors of Maryland, the Baltimores, whose colors were orange and black. This historical link is passed on to current-day pop culture as the mascot of the famed Baltimore Orioles baseball team.
Orioles, the birds, also have an artistic side. Birdwatchers marvel as they build intricately woven nests hanging from high tree branches. Orioles use a variety of long and thin materials to weave their dew-drop shaped nest, including grasses, bark, hair, wool, twine, and synthetic fibers. They prefer to nest in trees in the open, such as on the edge of a forest, along a waterway or hedgerow, and in urban parks, a recent adaptation. Females build the nest and incubate the eggs, while both parents raise the young, feeding them spiders, caterpillars, other insects, and fruit.
The sweet pleasant song of an oriole is highly variable and consists of single- and double-noted flutelike phrases separated by pauses. It is hard to believe that the harsh chatter call they give to predators, competing males, and intruding humans comes from the same bird. This aggressive call and accompanying striking behavior allows them to fend off would-be nest parasites, the brown-headed cowbird, with efficiency. If a cowbird does lay an egg in the nest, orioles are adept at removing them.
Baltimore Orioles return from their tropical wintering grounds in early May. Males have a black head, black wing with contrasting white wing bar, black back and tail, and flame-orange stomach. Females are drabber, with olive brown to black coloring on the upperparts and a lighter orange stomach. The smaller Orchard Oriole is also found in Vermont, though in much smaller numbers and only in the Champlain Valley. Adult males also have black upperparts, but have a dark chestnut stomach, which makes it easy to distinguish the two species. The first Baltimore Oriole of the season was sighted in North Ferrisburg on April 30 and the first Orchard Oriole on May 9 in Wallingford.
With thanks to Julie Hart, Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS)
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