The bird on the ground in the third photo is an adult female Baltimore Oriole. Females can get very dark hoods and be hard to distinguish from males, although they're never the brilliant reddish orange that males achieve.
Kevin From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Melissa Groo Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2012 12:43 PM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L Subject: [cayugabirds-l] bird injury/pecking I thought some might be interested in my anecdote about an injured bird and its companion, as I remembered the discussion a few weeks ago about behavior of birds when one is injured and the other is pecking at it. I observed a similar scenario. I was driving along Ellis Hollow Rd on Sunday when a Baltimore Oriole flew close to my hood before I could react. I couldn't tell if it had made contact but in the rear view mirror I saw it flutter down to the ground on the road shoulder. My heart sinking, I turned around, thinking if it were injured I could take it to Victoria at Wild Things Sanctuary or, if it were just slightly stunned, at least move it somewhat off the road till it recovered. When I pulled up on the opposite side of the street from the bird, I realized that there were two birds there, one prone, the other, a male oriole, standing by it, pecking at its chest. The male flew up to a nearby tree when it saw me. As he flew, the struck bird's feet were suddenly up in the air, twitching a bit. I thought those were the death throes and I looked up in the nearby tree where the male had alit, and saw it preening itself. When I looked back at the bird on the road--it was on its feet and in the next second, in flight. The male followed it. Can anyone tell me if the one my car struck is an adult female or a juvenile? It looks diminutive in my photo but it seemed near adult size if not full; the sudden drop of the roadside has hidden its lower body. My hurried pictures taken from the car can be seen at my album on the Cayuga Birding web site: http://www.cayugabirdclub.org/gallery Melissa Groo Melissa Groo Fine Art Photography http://melissagroo.com -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
