Today a friend and I went on a long walk through Coyote Hills. Near the
junction of Crandall Creek Trail and Alameda Creek Trail, we noticed a
small yellow bird on a power line. My friend posted a photo of the bird to
iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/26304442

Is this an expected Hooded Oriole, or could it be a female Orchard Oriole?
It appears to be uniformly yellow, lacking grayish flanks, and the white
wing bars look fairly defined.

Note: As I was writing this email, some folks on iNat decided the bird is a
Bullock's Oriole, which seems wrong to me given the clearly yellow belly. I
welcome any thoughts you have on the id.

Happy birding,
Teale Fristoe
Berkeley

That bill looks rather short to me for a Hooded Oriole. I see on
iNaturalist that the hypothesis has been offered that the bird is a
fledgling Hooded, thus shorter billed and brighter wingbars. It's early
June--was the bird by itself? In my neighborhood, the Hooded Oriole family
travels around together as a loose flock until late summer. I haven't
noticed any fledglings yet.

Bruce Mast
Oakland

On Sun, Jun 2, 2019 at 10:04 PM Teale Fristoe <fristoe@...> wrote:

Today a friend and I went on a long walk through Coyote Hills. Near the
junction of Crandall Creek Trail and Alameda Creek Trail, we noticed a
small yellow bird on a power line. My friend posted a photo of the bird to
iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/26304442

Is this an expected Hooded Oriole, or could it be a female Orchard Oriole?
It appears to be uniformly yellow, lacking grayish flanks, and the white
wing bars look fairly defined.

Note: As I was writing this email, some folks on iNat decided the bird is
a
Bullock's Oriole, which seems wrong to me given the clearly yellow belly.
I
welcome any thoughts you have on the id.

Happy birding,
Teale Fristoe
Berkeley

The bird was by itself. I also thought the bill looked small, but I never
know if I should trust myself on those kinds of subjective judgements.
Everyone who responded to my post privately (thanks again!) said Hooded
Oriole, and a couple of folks with more experience than me suggested that
it was a juvenile, so I figured that was the correct id.

Teale Fristoe
Berkeley

On Sun, Jun 9, 2019 at 8:38 AM Bruce Mast <cathrasher4@...> wrote:

That bill looks rather short to me for a Hooded Oriole. I see on
iNaturalist that the hypothesis has been offered that the bird is a
fledgling Hooded, thus shorter billed and brighter wingbars. It's early
June--was the bird by itself? In my neighborhood, the Hooded Oriole family
travels around together as a loose flock until late summer. I haven't
noticed any fledglings yet.

Bruce Mast
Oakland

On Sun, Jun 2, 2019 at 10:04 PM Teale Fristoe <fristoe@...> wrote:

Today a friend and I went on a long walk through Coyote Hills. Near the
junction of Crandall Creek Trail and Alameda Creek Trail, we noticed a
small yellow bird on a power line. My friend posted a photo of the bird
to
iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/26304442

Is this an expected Hooded Oriole, or could it be a female Orchard
Oriole?
It appears to be uniformly yellow, lacking grayish flanks, and the white
wing bars look fairly defined.

Note: As I was writing this email, some folks on iNat decided the bird
is a
Bullock's Oriole, which seems wrong to me given the clearly yellow
belly. I
welcome any thoughts you have on the id.

Happy birding,
Teale Fristoe
Berkeley