| Oriolidae | |
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| Black-naped Oriole | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Suborder: | Passeri |
| Family: | Oriolidae Vigors, 1825 |
| Genera | |
The orioles are a family of Old World passerine birds. The family Oriolidae comprises the figbirds in the genus Sphecotheres, and the Old World orioles in the genus Oriolus.[1] Several other genera have been proposed to split up the genus Oriolus. For example, the African black-headed species are sometimes placed in the genus Baruffius. The family is not related to the New World orioles, which are icterids, family Icteridae. The family is distributed across Africa, Europe, Asia down into Australia. The few temperate nesting species are migratory, and some tropical species also show seasonal movements.
The orioles and figbirds are medium sized passerines, around 20–30 cm in length, with the females only slightly smaller than the males.[1] The beak is slightly curved and hooked, and, except in the figbirds, as long again as the head. The plumage of most species is bright and showy, although the females often have duller plumage than the males do. The plumage of many Australasian orioles mimics that of friarbirds (a genus of large honeyeaters), probably to reduce aggression against the smaller orioles.[2]
Orioles are arboreal and tend to feed in the canopy.[1] Many species are able to survive in open forests and woodlands, although a few are restricted to closed forest. They are opportunistic omnivores, with the main components of their diet being fruit, berries, and arthropods.
Orioles are monogamous, breeding in territorial pairs (although the Australasian Figbird, and possibly also the other figbirds, breed in loose colonies).[1] Nesting sites may be chosen near aggressive species such as drongos, shrikes or friarbirds, which confer a degree of protection. The nest is a deep woven cup suspended like a hammock from a branch. They usually lay two or three eggs, but as many as six have been recorded.
ORIOLE (0. Fr. Oriol, Lat. aureoles), the name once applied to a bird, from its golden colouring - the Oriolus galbula of Linnaeus - but now commonly used in a much wider sense. The golden oriole, which is the type of the Passerine family Oriolidae, is a far from uncommon spring-visitor to the British Islands, but has very rarely bred there. On the continent of Europe it is a well-known if not an abundant bird, and its range in summer extends so far to the east as Irkutsk, while in winter it is found in Natal and Damaraland. In India it is replaced by a closely allied form, O. kundoo, the mango-bird, chiefly distinguishable by the male possessing a black streak behind as well as in front of the eye; and both in Asia and Africa are several other species more or less resembling O. galbula, but some depart considerably from that type, assuming a black head, or even a glowing crimson, instead of the ordinary yellow colouring, while others again remain constant to the dingy type of plumage which characterizes the female of the more normal form. Among these last are the aberrant species of the group Mimetes or Mimeta, belonging to the Australian Region, respecting which A. R. Wallace pointed out, first in the Zoological Society's Proceedings (1863, pp. 26-28), and afterwards in his Malay Archipelago (ii. pp. 150-153), the very curious signs of "mimicry" (see HONEY-EATER). It is a singular circumstance that this group Mimeta first received its name from P. P. King (Survey, &c. of Australia, ii. 417) under the belief that the birds composing it belonged to the family Meliphagidae, which had assumed the appearance of orioles, whereas Wallace's investigations tend to show that the imitation (unconscious, of course) is on the part of the latter. The external similarity of the Mimeta and the Tropidorhynchus of the island of Bouru, one of the Moluccas, is perfectly wonderful, and has again and again deceived some of the best ornithologists, though the birds are structurally far apart. Another genus which has been referred to the Oriolidae, and may here be mentioned, is Sphecotheres, peculiar to the Australian Region, and distinguishable from the more normal orioles by a bare space round the eye. Orioles are shy and restless birds, frequenting gardens and woods, and living on insects and fruit. The nest is pocket-shaped, of bark, grass and fibres, and the eggs are white or salmon-coloured with dark spots. The "American orioles" (see IcTERUS) belong to a different Passerine family, the Icteridae. (A. N.)
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<< Orinoco |
Categories: OPE-ORO
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Singular |
Plural |
Oriole (plural Orioles)
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| File:Black-naped | |||||||||||||
| Black-naped Oriole | |||||||||||||
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The Old World oriole or just Oriole is a bird in the family Oriolidae. They make up the genus Oriolus. Old World orioles are found areas of Africa, Asia and Europe. They are most often found in tropical areas but one species lives in cooler areas. The Golden Oriole is the only species of Old World oriole which is not a tropical bird.
Orioles have bright colored feathers.
Orioles are not related to the New World oriole. New World orioles are members of the family Icteridae and are native to the Americas .
This is a list of kinds of orioles, in the English and Latin languages:
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