By the time you read this post I will officially be another year older, another year’s worth of wear on the body (actually more like 3 years based on the long injury tab) and hopefully another year wiser. All in all, I can’t complain. No longer in the corporate grinder, get to spend each day with someone who deserves better and my days are filled with activities that make me want to get up the next morning and do them all again. Life is good. This is also the first year I have been able to celebrate my special day in Vegas! Going to get a head start on that wear and tear for the year ha. Being in the city of lights, thought I would go with a fitting neon colored specimen from the birding world for today’s featured feathered friend.
How is that for an orange Lite-Brite peg (if anyone remembers what that toy was).
Hit the jump to see a few more shots and learn a bit more about our Halloween inspired bird.
For those not familiar with Mr. Orange and Black, this is an Altamira Oriole. If you want to experience one of these magnificent Orioles you likely need to do some traveling unless you happen to live in the southern tip of Texas. Those in Central or South American, you have a few more options, but for us dwelling in North America…well, it’s gonna take some effort.
The good news is once you are in their region, you should have no trouble getting it checked off your list. Every place we visited while on our annual snowbird trip to Texas last year included at least one flash of orange across the treeline or a brief stop at a local feeder filled with oranges and/or peanut butter mixture. If you are lucky you will see their spot on imitation of a Burrowing Owl…
The Altamira is my favorite Oriole and has been featured several times already on the blog (link here and here and even here). Those that are aware of my haunt addiction can appreciate the color choices and you have to appreciate a bird that wears a mask and carries around a dagger like that – Michael Meyers has nothing on this species.
Beyond the color and the easy accessibility (once in the region) they tend to be fairly accommodating to humans carrying around bazooka glass. Honestly, I think they just like looking at their reflection…”look at me, my left side is just kicking it!”
I should point out there is another imposter that roams that same region – the Hooded Oriole (link here). As most Orioles go, the males also sports the orange and black feather theme and have a similar mask and wicked weapon protruding out of their head. I find the Hoodeds have a more yellow hue than the Altamiras, but that is not the best field identifier. If you look particularly at the side of the face, you will see that the black mask curves down from the back of the eye to nearly the bottom of the bill.
The Hooded’s black on the side extends from the back of the eye straight down to the neck without the curve. Keep that distinction in mind and you should have no issues distinguishing between the males. Much easier to distinguish the females as the Altamira adults have the same coloring where the Hooded adult females lack the black markings. Of course, that also means you have to worry about distinguishing the female Hoods from the female Summer Tanagers, but that is for another post.
In case you are not sure where to find these beauties on your Texas trip, these pictures actually come from three different locations. The first set comes courtesy of the National Butterfly Center near Mission, TX. That also happens to be very close to Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park where some of these shots were taken. Lastly, there is a couple shots thrown in from Estero Llano Grande State Park – by far, our favorite birding spot in the Rio Grande Valley.
Gotta let you go – got happy feet getting ready to hit the strip for a night of fun and..well, you know the saying, we’ll be keeping those stories off the blog ha. Take care everyone, to our friends and staff back home, all I can say is it’s only slightly warmer down here.
Life Intrigued 