Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Nesting determination

I'm not so great at identifying birds yet though I believe that this is is a female Northern Oriole.
My strongest evidence is circumstantial.  I saw a male northern oriole at the same spot, both before and after seeing this bird.   What bothers me, though is the white patch on its belly. 
If I was just going by the book I would pick a Bullock's Oriole but the mid Ohio valley is out
of their area. vThe black on her head is consistent with Peterson's description that females sometimes show a suggestion of the hood that is part of the male's description.

This bird doesn't seem to care what humans have named it as it is concentrating gathering nest building materials.  The strings of the baling twine enticed the bird into a tug-o-war match

At one point  the bird was air-born with her wings flapping as she tried to disentangle a string.
After a short rest, she finally pulled at least one piece loose and headed for a nearby sycamore tree.
Like this determined nest builder, I can use a little help. 
If you know better than me, please let me know what this bird is.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Wish i could be of help naming the bird.
For the moment all i can say is that its a beautiful bird and i am immensely enjoying your beautiful photographs.
Costas

Nellie from Beyond My Garden said...

Thanks Cotas, I wonder, sometimes if some of my writing that has "double-meaning" gets lost in the translation. Your walks on the beach lately have had some lovely scenes. nellie