Bullock’s Oriole, Icterus bullockii

Bullock’s Oriole, Icterus bullockii bullockii, Male. Photograph taken within a residential community in Alamos, Sonora, February 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Bullock’s Oriole, Icterus bullockii bullockii, Female. Photograph taken within a residential community in Alamos, Sonora, March 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Bullock’s Oriole, Icterus bullockii bullockii. Photograph taken within a residential community in Hereford, Arizona, April 2015. Photograph and identification courtesy of Bob Behrstock, Sierra Vista, Arizona (naturewideimages.com).

Bullock’s Oriole, Icterus bullockii bullockii, is one of two subspecies of Bullock’s Oriole, both of which are found in Mexico. They are a member of the Icteridae Family of Troupials and Allies that includes Grackles, New World Blackbirds and Orioles, that has one hundred five individual species placed in thirty genera, and one of thirty-two global species of the Icterus Genus. They are known Mexico as turpial de Bullock.

Bullock’s Oriole is mid-sized in stature. They are sexually dimorphic in both plumage and size. Mature males have bright black and orange plumage with a black eye-line and a black chin and center of the throat; females have a gray body with a yellow head, breast and tail; they lack black, dull greenish-gray, and yellowish underparts. Their bills are black with bluish cutting edges; their iris is dark brown, their legs and feet are gray or dull bluish gray; and, their wings are gray-brown with one or two indistinct wing bars. The juvenile males resemble the adult females.

In Mexico Bullock’s Oriole are found open riparian woodlands within cottonwoods, sycamores and willows, within native grasslands, mesquite thickets, desert scrub and oak forests at elevations up to 3,000 m (10,000 feet). They feed on arthropods supplemented by berries, fruits and nectar. They will also frequent hummingbird feeders. They have life spans of up to nine years. Bullock’s Oriole has been poorly studied and very limited information about their behavioral patterns and biology has been documented.

Most populations of Bullock’s Oriole are highly migratory overwintering in western Mexico making stops for molting in northern Mexico in the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Sonora on route to is wintering grounds in southern San Luis Potosí and southern Tamaulipas on the Atlantic Slope and south to central Chiapas. The bullockii subspecies is found year-round in Baja California, northeastern Sonora, northern and eastern Chihuahua and northern central Durango and Nuevo León.

From a conservation perspective Bollock’s Oriole is currently considered to be of Least Concern, with stable, widely distributed populations.