All,
I also well remember the much discussed oriole that was at the Rockefeller
Preserve in Sleepy Hollow about ten years ago. The defining feature that was
pointed out then by someone of ID Frontiers was the the way the black marks
intrude on the upper white wing bar.
This is a bit hard to describe but is easily seen on many photos and drawings
in field guides. I am looking at the Stokes Guide as I write this. The upper
wing bar is the tips of the median coverts. Just above the white, the black is
well defined on Bullocks and forms little spikes or intrusions down into the
white. There is no such effect in Baltimore. The Central Park bird looks like
a Baltimore to me.
Bob LewisSleepy Hollow NY
--- On Mon, 12/12/11, Angus Wilson <oceanwanderer...@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Angus Wilson <oceanwanderer...@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [ebirdsnyc] Central Park, December 11, 2011 incl photo of
Baltimore Oriole
To: "eBirdsnyc" <ebirds...@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Monday, December 12, 2011, 6:57 PM
Hi Everyone,
There has been some discuss of the identification of the 'Northern' Oriole
visiting the maintenance area feeders in Central Park, specifically whether
it's a Baltimore Oriole or a Bullock's Oriole. It goes without saying that the
latter would be considerably rarer that the former, however typical of a
vagrant from western North America, most records of Bullock's in the northeast
have occurred in late fall and early winter. So the timing is provocative and
indeed ANY oriole in November onwards deserves extra scrutiny (cf the Scott's
Oriole).
When I saw the bird myself on Sunday I felt reasonably comfortable calling it a
Baltimore and I know that others called it the same, but there's no harm in
reconsidering the Baltimore/Bullock's question.Some female Baltimore Orioles
can be quite gray in basic plumage and the ID is not necessarily simple. Some
readers may remember a much discussed bird (10+ yrs ago) at the Rockefeller
Preserve up in Westchester County that was finally nudged into the Baltimore
camp. My own impressions were of a generally olive-gray toned bird, not as a
steely gray as I expect for Bullock's. The color on the throat and breast also
seemed orange-yellow, not sulfur-yellow. Watching with binocular, I could not
detect any hint of a dark stripe through the lore/eye beyond the natural
positioning of the feathers and the bill seemed very pointy. My sense is that
in Bullock's, the bill is slightly less sharp tipped but don't know how robust
a criteria this is.
Beside Ardith, does anyone have photos they can share? I'd be especially
interested in photos that are not in strong sunlight (more faithful rendering
of the colors) and ones that offer additional views of the back and head.
Cheers, Angus Wilson
__,_._,___
--
NYSbirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm
ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html
Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/
--
