 Photo: Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center
Recording of song by Lang Elliott You can also buy the CD in our store. |
BALTIMORE ORIOLE (Icterus galbula) 
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| 8 inches. Neotropical migrant, it spends summers primarily the eastern United States. It breeds from Wisconsin to Maine and south to central Mississippi and Alabama, northern Georgia, and western South Carolina and North Carolina. It winters in the neotropics and as far north as Mexico and sometimes the southern coast of the United States. It eats insects, some small fruits, and nectar. It is an important predator on the nuisance forest tent caterpillar Malacosoma disstria, which it eats in both its larval and pupal forms. Prefers open woods. It is rare on farmlands but may be found in suburban areas. In Mexico, it winters in flowering canopy trees over shade coffee plantations. |