The Eurasian golden oriole (''Oriolus oriolus'') also called the common golden oriole, is the only member of the
Old World oriole
The Old World orioles (Oriolidae) are an Old World family of passerine birds.
Taxonomy and systematics
The family Oriolidae comprises the piopios, figbirds, pitohuis and the Old World orioles. The piopios were added 2011, having been formerly p ...
family of
passerine
A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
s breeding in Northern Hemisphere temperate regions. It is a summer
migrant in Europe and
Palearctic
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa.
The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...
and spends the winter season in central and southern Africa.
Golden orioles have an extremely large range with large populations that are apparently stable. Therefore, they are evaluated as
least concern
A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...
by
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...
.
Taxonomy and systematics
The Eurasian golden oriole was
described by
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
in 1758 in the
tenth edition of his ''
Systema Naturae
' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...
'' and given the
binomial name
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
''Coracias oriolus''.
The Eurasian golden oriole and the
Indian golden oriole
The Indian golden oriole (''Oriolus kundoo'') is a species of oriole found in the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. The species was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the Eurasian golden oriole, but is now considered a full species. Ad ...
were formerly considered as
conspecific
Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species.
Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...
, but in 2005 they were treated as separate species by the ornithologists
Pamela Rasmussen
Pamela Cecile Rasmussen (born October 16, 1959) is an American ornithologist and expert on Asian birds. She was formerly a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and is based at the Michigan State University. She ...
and John Anderton, in the first edition of their ''
Birds of South Asia
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight ...
''. Support for this split was provided by a
molecular phylogenetic
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...
study published in 2010, and most ornithologists now treat the Indian golden oriole as a separate species. Alternate names for the Eurasian golden oriole include the European golden oriole and western Eurasian golden oriole. The species is
monotypic
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...
.
Etymology
The name "oriole" was first used in the 18th century and is an adaptation of the scientific
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
genus name, which is derived from the Classical Latin "aureolus" meaning ''golden''. Various forms of "oriole" have existed in
Romance language
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European languages, I ...
s since the 12th and 13th centuries.
Albertus Magnus
Albertus Magnus (c. 1200 – 15 November 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop. Later canonised as a Catholic saint, he was known during his life ...
used the Latin form ''oriolus'' in about 1250 and erroneously stated that it was
onomatopoeic
Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...
because of the golden oriole's song. In medieval England its name, derived from the song, was the ''woodwele''.
Description
The male is striking in the typical oriole black and yellow plumage, but the female is a drabber green bird. Orioles are shy, and even the male is remarkably difficult to see in the dappled yellow and green leaves of the canopy. In flight they look somewhat like a
thrush, strong and direct with some shallow dips over longer distances. The
New World oriole
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. As a resu ...
s are similar in appearance to the Oriolidae, but are
icterids and unrelated to the Old World birds.
Its call is a harsh "kweeaahk", but the song is a fluting ''weela-wee-ooo'' or ''or-iii-ole'', unmistakable once heard, often with subtle variations between each phrase. Despite being relatively small, the song, normally sung from the top of a tree, carries for a long distance across the landscape. Although these are its two most readily identified sounds, it does make a variety of other sounds.
The male of the Indian golden oriole (''Oriolus kundoo'') has the black eye-stripe extending behind the eye, has a longer and paler red bill and has more yellow in the plumage.
Distribution and habitat
The breeding range of this species spans from western Europe and
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
east to China. They winter in central and southern Africa.
They generally migrate during the night, but may travel during the day in the spring migration. During the autumn migration they migrate via the Eastern Mediterranean where they feed on fruit; they are often considered a pest in this region because of this.
Though not resident, Eurasian golden orioles are regularly recorded as summer passage migrants in
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
, and occur in small numbers on the South Coast of England and in
East Anglia
East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...
. On average, around 85 birds are recorded in Great Britain annually.
The Eurasian golden oriole inhabits a range of habitats. In Western Europe they prefer open broadleaf forests and plantations, copses, riverine forest, orchards, large gardens; in Eastern Europe they may inhabit more continuous forest as well as mixed or coniferous forests. They generally avoid treeless habitats but may forage there. In their wintering habitat they are found in semi-arid to humid woodland, tall forests, riverine forest, woodland/savanna mosaic and savanna.
Behaviour and ecology
Breeding
Eurasian golden orioles may delay breeding until they are 2 or 3 years of age. Males usually arrive at breeding area several days before the females. The fidelity to a territory or even to a specific nest site suggests that the pair-bond may continue from one breeding season to the next. The nest is placed high in a tree towards the edge of the crown. The deep cup-shaped nest is suspended below a horizontal fork of thin branches. It is built by the female, but the male will sometimes gather some of the material. The nest is held in place by plant fibres up to in length and lined with fine grass, feathers and wool. The clutch is usually between 3 and 5 eggs. These are laid at daily intervals early in the morning. The eggs are on average with a calculated weight of . They can be white, cream or very pale pink and are decorated with black marks which are sometimes concentrated at the larger end. The eggs are mainly incubated by the female but the male will incubate for short periods to allow the female to feed. The eggs hatch after 16–17 days. The young are fed by both parents but are mostly brooded by the female. The young fledge after 16–17 days. The clutch is only rarely lost to predators as the parents vigorously defend their nest.
The greatest recorded age for a Eurasian golden oriole is 10 years and 1 month for a male that was ringed in Lincolnshire in 1986 and seen alive in Cambridgeshire in 1996.
Feeding
They feed on insects and fruit, using their bills to pick insects out of crevices.
Conservation
Since 1987, the Golden Oriole Group and the
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment throug ...
have been engaged in protecting known Eurasian golden oriole breeding sites in East Anglia.
References
Sources
*
External links
*
*
Ageing and sexing (PDF; 5.3 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael HeinzeInternet Bird Collection: ''Golden Oriole videos, photos and sounds''* (European =) Eurasian golden oriole
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African BirdsListen to an oriole singingXeno-canto: audio recordings of the Eurasian golden oriole
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Eurasian golden oriole
The Eurasian golden oriole (''Oriolus oriolus'') also called the common golden oriole, is the only member of the Old World oriole family of passerine birds breeding in Northern Hemisphere temperate regions. It is a summer bird migration, migrant ...
Birds of Eurasia
Birds of Africa
Eurasian golden oriole
The Eurasian golden oriole (''Oriolus oriolus'') also called the common golden oriole, is the only member of the Old World oriole family of passerine birds breeding in Northern Hemisphere temperate regions. It is a summer bird migration, migrant ...
Eurasian golden oriole
The Eurasian golden oriole (''Oriolus oriolus'') also called the common golden oriole, is the only member of the Old World oriole family of passerine birds breeding in Northern Hemisphere temperate regions. It is a summer bird migration, migrant ...
Birds of Iran