New World oriole

New World orioles
Baltimore oriole, Icterus galbula
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Icteridae
Genus:	Icterus Brisson, 1760
Species
25-30 species, see text

New World orioles are a group of birds in the genus Icterus of the blackbird family. Unrelated to Old World orioles of the family Oriolidae, they are strikingly similar in size, diet, behavior, and strongly contrasting plumage, a good example of convergent evolution. As a result, the two have been given the same vernacular name.

Males are typically black and vibrant yellow or orange with white markings, females and immature birds duller. They molt annually. New World orioles are generally slender with long tails and a pointed bill. They mainly eat insects, but also enjoy nectar and fruit. The nest is a woven, elongated pouch. Species nesting in areas with cold winters are strongly migratory, while subtropical and tropical species are more sedentary.

The name "oriole" was first recorded (in the Latin form oriolus) by Albertus Magnus in about 1250, which he stated to be onomatopoeic, from the song of the European golden oriole.

One of the species in the genus, Bahama oriole, is critically endangered.

The genus Icterus was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the Venezuelan troupial as the type species.^[1] The name is the Latin word for the Eurasian golden oriole.^[2]

The genus name Icterus as used by classical authors, referred to a bird with yellow or green plumage. Icterus is from Greek ἴκτερος (íkteros, “jaundice”); the ictērus was a bird the sight of which was believed to cure jaundice, perhaps the Eurasian golden oriole.^[3] Brisson re-applied the name to the New World birds because of their similarity in appearance.^[4]

Species list[]

The genus contains 33 extant species.^[5]

Image	Common Name	Scientific name	Distribution
	Scott's oriole	Icterus parisorum	Southwestern United States and south to Baja California Sur and central Mexico.
	Yellow-backed oriole	Icterus chrysater	Belize, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela.
	Audubon's oriole	Icterus graduacauda	westernmost range extends from Nayarit south to southern Oaxaca, whereas the eastern range stretches from the lower Rio Grande valley to northern Querétaro
	Jamaican oriole	Icterus leucopteryx	Jamaica and on the Colombian island of San Andrés
	Orange oriole	Icterus auratus	the Yucatán Peninsula and far northern Belize
	Altamira oriole	Icterus gularis	subtropical lowlands of the Mexican Gulf Coast and northern Central America, the Pacific coast and inland
	Yellow oriole	Icterus nigrogularis	northern South America in Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad, the Guianas and parts of northern Brazil, (northern Roraima state, and eastern Amapá)
	Bullock's oriole	Icterus bullockii	as far north as British Columbia in Canada and as far south as Sonora or Durango in Mexico
	Streak-backed oriole	Icterus pustulatus	Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and an occasional visitor to the Southwestern United States
	Black-backed oriole	Icterus abeillei	Mexico.
	Baltimore oriole	Icterus galbula	Canadian Prairies and eastern Montana in the northwest eastward through southern Ontario, southern Quebec and New Brunswick and south through the eastern United States to central Mississippi and Alabama and northern Georgia.
	Yellow-tailed oriole	Icterus mesomelas	southern Mexico to western Peru and northwestern Venezuela
	Spot-breasted oriole	Icterus pectoralis	Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua.
	White-edged oriole	Icterus graceannae	Ecuador and Peru.
	Campo troupial	Icterus jamacaii	northeastern Brazil
	Venezuelan troupial	Icterus icterus	Colombia, Venezuela, and the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, and Puerto Rico.
	Orange-backed troupial	Icterus croconotus	Guyana, Brazil, Paraguay, and eastern Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru
	Bar-winged oriole	Icterus maculialatus	El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.
	Black-vented oriole	Icterus wagleri	El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and the United States.
	Hooded oriole	Icterus cucullatus	Baja California Sur, the Mexican east coast, and Belize.
	Black-cowled oriole	Icterus prosthemelas	eastern half of mainland Central America.
	Orchard oriole	Icterus spurius	United States, Mexico
	Cuban oriole	Icterus melanopsis	island of Cuba and the neighboring Isla de la juventud
	Bahama oriole	Icterus northropi	the Bahamas.
	Martinique oriole	Icterus bonana	Martinique, French West Indies
	Puerto Rican oriole	Icterus portoricensis	Puerto Rico
	Montserrat oriole	Icterus oberi	Lesser Antilles of the West Indies,
	Saint Lucia oriole	Icterus laudabilis	main island of St. Lucia
	Hispaniolan oriole	Icterus dominicensis	Hispaniola.
	Orange-crowned oriole	Icterus auricapillus	eastern Panama, Colombia and Venezuela.
	Variable oriole	Icterus pyrrhopterus	Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
	Epaulet oriole	Icterus cayanensis	Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, and Suriname.

One extinct species, the (Icterus turmalis), is known from fossil remains recovered from the of northwestern Peru, and likely went extinct during the late Quaternary. It may have been a close associate of Pleistocene megafauna communities, and may have gone extinct following their collapse in populations.^[6]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Icterus.

• New World oriole videos, photos and sounds on the Internet Bird Collection