Adult male. Photo: Becky Matsubara/Flickr (CC-BY-2.0)
Icterus spurius
| Conservation status | In recent decades, has decreased in many parts of range but has increased in some regions, such as northern Great Plains. |
|---|---|
| Family | Blackbirds and Orioles |
| Habitat | Wood edges, orchards, shade trees. Breeds in semi-open habitats with deciduous trees and open space, including riverside trees, orchards, suburbs, forest edges and clearings, prairie groves. Usually avoids unbroken forest. Winters in brushy areas and woodland edges in lowlands of the tropics. |
Forages mostly by searching for insects among the foliage of trees and bushes. Regularly visits flowers, probing in the blossoms with its bill. In winter in the tropics, often forages in flocks.
4-5, sometimes 3-7. Pale bluish white, blotched with brown, gray, purple. Incubation is probably mostly or entirely by the female, about 12-15 days; reportedly, the male may feed the female during incubation. Young: Both parents feed the nestlings. Young leave the nest about 11-14 days after hatching, may remain with one or both parents for several weeks. 1 brood per year.
Both parents feed the nestlings. Young leave the nest about 11-14 days after hatching, may remain with one or both parents for several weeks. 1 brood per year.
Mostly insects, some berries and nectar. Diet in summer is mostly insects, especially caterpillars, beetles, and grasshoppers, plus many others, also spiders. Eats some berries, perhaps more in fall and winter. Often feeds on nectar, and may eat parts of flowers.
Male sings in spring to attract a mate. Often not strongly territorial; in some cases, more than one pair may nest in the same tree. Also sometimes nests in the same tree with Eastern Kingbirds. Nest site is in tree (usually deciduous) or tall shrub, rarely in tall dense marsh growth. Often 10-20' above ground, can be much lower or higher (3-70' up); typically placed in fork of horizontal branch, sometimes in clump of Spanish moss or other site. Nest (built by female, possibly with help from male) is a hanging pouch or basket, not as deep as some oriole nests, woven of grass and plant fibers, lined with fine grass and plant down.
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.
From their brief taxonomic hiatus to their intense sugar cravings, there’s a lot to know about these brilliant birds
The state's newest bird atlas shows species shifting northward over the past 20 years—a pattern that is being seen nationwide, experts say.
Location: Off 72nd Road on the bridle path, Queens, NY 11421
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