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BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary


Icterus galbula
Baltimore Oriole

 
Scientific Name: Icterus galbula (Linnaeus, 1758)
English Name: Baltimore Oriole
 
Classification / Taxonomy
Scientific Name - Concept Reference: American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in The Auk]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
Classification Level: Species
Species Group: Vertebrate Animal
Species Code: B-BAOR
Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family
Animalia Craniata Aves Passeriformes Icteridae
   
Conservation Status / Legal Designation
Global Status: G5 (Apr 2016)
Provincial Status: S3B (Apr 2024)
BC List: Blue
Provincial FRPA list:   
Provincial Wildlife Act:
COSEWIC Status:
SARA Schedule:
General Status Canada: 4 - Secure (2005)
Migratory Bird Convention Act: Y
   
Ecology & Life History
General Description: Adult males have a black head, upper mantle, wings, and tail, with orange on other upperparts and underparts, shoulders, and the of the outer tail feathers, and a single white wing-bar. Adult females are highly variable, often similar to males, but tend to be more subdued in coloration, with the head and mantle not solidly black (or dark brownish olive than black), and with paler orange underparts and rump, and a plain brownish olive tail. Adults are similar in plumage throughout the year. Immatures in fall and early winter are similar to adult females but are paler overall, lacking black on the head and upperparts. Length is about 9 inches (23 cm).
Global Reproduction Comments: In most areas, nesting begins in May (or late April in southern locations). Clutch size is 3-6 (commonly 4-5). Incubation, by the female, lats 12-14 days. Young are tended by both parents, leave nest at 12-14 days, generally in June oe early July. Yearling males (in their second calendar year) resemble adult females but nevertheless may successfully attract a mate and raise young. This species ejects brown-headed cowbird eggs from the nest (Sealy and Neudorf 1995, Condor 97:369-375).
Global Ecology Comments: Nonbreeding: usually in groups of 2-5 (rarely 15), in definite home ranges; sometimes large communal roosts (Stiles and Skutch 1989).
Migration Characteristics:
(Global / Provincial)		 
    Nonmigrant:
    Local Migrant:
    Distant Migrant:
    Within Borders Migrant: 		Y /
Y /
Y /
na /
Global Migration Comments: Most Baltimore orioles migrate north through the southeastern United States in March-April, arrive in the northern states and Canada in April-May; males precede females by a few days. Southward migration begins in late July or early August and continues in the United States through August and September and sometimes later. South-bound migrants arrives in Costa Rica early September, depart by early May (Stiles and Skutch 1989). The species is present in South America mostly October-April (Ridgely and Tudor 1989).

Most individuals from eastern North America probably cross Gulf of Mexico en route to winter range (Rohwer and Manning 1990).
Habitats:
(Type / Subtype / Dependence) 		Anthropogenic / Urban/Suburban / Facultative - occasional use
Forest / Deciduous/Broadleaf Forest / Facultative - frequent use
Grassland/Shrub / Shrub - Logged / Facultative - occasional use
Grassland/Shrub / Shrub - Natural / Facultative - occasional use
Riparian / Riparian Forest / Facultative - occasional use
Global Habitat Comments: Habitat includes open woodland, deciduous forest edge, riparian woodland, partly open situations with scattered trees, orchards, and groves of shade trees. In migration and winter this oriole also occurs in humid forest edge, second growth, and scrub; treetop level in coffee and cacao plantations, and savanna groves. Nests are placed in trees, an average of around 25-30 feet (8-9 meters) above ground, usually at the end of a drooping branch.
Food Habits: Frugivore: Adult, Immature
Invertivore: Adult, Immature
Nectarivore: Adult, Immature
Global Food Habits Comments: Gleans insects, especially caterpillars, from trees and shrubs; also eats various fruits (Terres 1980) and nectar (Stiles and Skutch 1989). South America: often feeds in flowering trees (Ridgely and Tudor 1989).
Global Phenology: Diurnal: Adult, Immature
Provincial Phenology:
(1st half of month/
2nd half of month)
Colonial Breeder: N
Length(cm)/width(cm)/Weight(g): 22/ / 34
Elevation (m) (min / max): Global: 
Provincial: 
   
 
Distribution
Endemic: N
Global Range Comment: Breeding range extends from central Alberta, central Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, western Ontario, northern Michigan, southern Ontario, southwestern Quebec, central Maine, southern New Brunswick, and central Nova Scotia south to eastern Texas, central regions of Gulf coast states except Florida (accidental), north-central Georgia, western South Carolina, central North Carolina, central Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, and west to the western edge of the Great Plains (AOU 1998). Range during the northern winter extends from Nayarit and Veracruz (casually from coastal California and Sonora) south through Middle America to northern Colombia, northern Venezuela, and Trinidad, regularly in small numbers in the Atlantic states north to Virginia, in the Greater Antilles east to the Virgin Islands, and casually elsewhere in eastern North America (AOU 1998). This species migrates regularly through the southeastern and south-central United States and northeastern Mexico, and in coastal California, rarely through the northern Bahama Islands and Yucatan Peninsula, and casually elsewhere in western North America (AOU 1998).
 
Authors / Contributors
Global Information Author: Hammerson, G.
Last Updated: Feb 01, 2010
Provincial Information Author:
Last Updated:
   
References and Related Literature
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1983. Check-list of North American Birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp.
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1995. Fortieth supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. Auk 112:819-30.
Bent, A.C. 1958. Life histories of North American blackbirds, orioles, tanagers, and their allies. U.S. National Museum Bulletin 211. Washington, DC.
Campbell, R.W., N.K. Dawe, I.McT.-Cowan, J.M. Cooper, G. Kaiser, A.C. Stewart, and M.C.E. McNall. 2001. The Birds of British Columbia, Vol. 4, Passerines: Wood-Warblers through Old World Sparrows. UBC Press, in cooperation with Environ. Can., Can. Wildl. Serv., and B.C. Minist. Environ., Lands and Parks, Wildl. Branch and Resour. Inventory Branch, and Royal B.C. Mus. 744pp.
Hagan, J. M., III, and D. W. Johnston, editors. 1992. Ecology and conservation of neotropical migrant landbirds. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. xiii + 609 pp.
Harrison, C. 1978. A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.
Harrison, H. H. 1979. A field guide to western birds' nests. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 279 pp.
Hilty, S.L. and W. L. Brown. 1986. A Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA. 836 pp.
Peterjohn, B. G., J. R. Sauer, and W. A. Link. 1994. The 1992 and 1993 summary of the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Bird Populations 2:46-61.
Raffaele, H. A. 1983a. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Fondo Educativo Interamericano, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 255 pp.
Ridgely, R. S. and G. Tudor. 1989. The birds of South America. Volume 1. University of Texas Press, Austin, USA. 516 pp.
Rohwer, S., and J. Manning. 1990. Differences in timing and number of molts for Baltimore and Bullock's orioles: implications to hybrid fitness and theories of delayed plumage maturation. Condor 92:125-140.
Sauer, J.R., and S. Droege. 1992. Geographical patterns in population trends of Neotropical migrants in North America. Pages 26-42 in J.M. Hagan, III, and D.W. Johnston, editors. Ecology and conservation of Neotropical migrant landbirds. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.
Stiles, F. G. and A. F. Skutch. 1989. A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA. 511 pp.
Terres, J. K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
 

Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.

Suggested Citation:

B.C. Conservation Data Centre. 2010. Species Summary: Icterus galbula. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Jun 10, 2026).