Baltimore orioles spring into action
Baltimore orioles are ready to spring into action.
Imagine being a 17th-century American colonist and waking up on a spring morning to the sight of a golden-orange bird that looked like the golden orioles of Europe.
You’d join your fellow colonizers in naming the bird a Baltimore oriole in honor of English colonizer Lord Baltimore, aka George Calvert (circa 1578-1632), whose orange and black coat of arms was similar to the bird’s plumage.
But imagine a cantankerous colonist saying the bird doesn’t look like an oriole — but like a blackbird with orange patches. Nah, you wouldn’t associate a blackbird with a nobleman.
Yet, despite their flashy plumage, Baltimore orioles do belong to the same Icteridae family as blackbirds. We’ll see the similarity for ourselves this month.
The orioles will be arriving in our backyards on their migratory journey from Latin American winter homes. They’ll land in our trees and gardens while chomping down insects, spiders and caterpillars or even sipping nectar from hummingbird feeders.
Nail an orange half to a tree. An oriole may devour the fruit by prying it apart with its daggershaped beak attached to strong muscles in the skull. Blackbirds have similar beaks, a likeness the cranky Maryland colonist would surely have noticed.
Maybe the contrarian colonist watched the bird forage in a tree with the agility of an acrobat as it hung upside down on twigs while plucking insects off leaves. Leg muscles with that level of strength would be like the leg muscles of blackbirds raiding corn crops in the Maryland Colonies.
Still, the ornery colonist would have been mesmerized by Baltimore orioles. Males have goldenorange undersides, shimmering black hoods and backs, and black wings with white wing bars. Females have various shades of yellow underneath and yellowishbrown heads, backs and wings.
Once the Colonies had tree orchards, people cheered the spring arrival of Baltimore orioles. The handsome birds chomped down tent caterpillars that threatened devastation to the orchards.
But I doubt the colonists, save for that lone curmudgeon — would have thought that the orioles flew across the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall down here during April. Or that the birds stopped here to rest and fatten up before traveling to Maryland.
Gary Clark is the author of “Book of Texas Birds,” with photography by Kathy Adams Clark (Texas A&M University Press). Email him at Texasbirder@comcast.net.