WESTERN BIRDS Oriole 



old, he has the bright plumage. Ornithologists are 

 divided as to whether this different plumage of the 

 second and third year is a set rule, or whether it is 

 simply individual variation. 



The Oriole which most resembles this one in the east 

 is the Orchard. It is quite similar in shape and the 

 females are much alike as well as the second year males. 



The Hooded Oriole is the commonest one in California, 

 usually reaching Los Angeles some time in March, some- 

 times earlier, and staying into September. Usually the 

 males precede the females by a few days. 



In the matter of nest-building few American birds 

 excel the Orioles, That of the Hooded is one of the most 

 interesting. A favorite nesting-site is the under parts of 

 a palm leaf, but eucalyptus and other trees are used 

 where there are no palms. The nest is a cup-shaped 

 semipensile affair made of fibers and grasses. When in 

 the neighborhood of palms, their fibers are used entirely, 

 making a light nest that just matches its overhanging 

 cover — the big leaf. Often the nest is not more than 

 eight feet from the ground, although it may be thirty, 

 or more. 



The female does the building and it is amusing to see 

 her light on one of the leaves and pull at a loose fiber 

 until she has stripped it down and broken it off. Just 

 how she succeeds in getting this limpy fiber through the 

 stiff palm leaf and making it stay until, with its asso- 

 ciates it has formed the dainty basket, is still a mystery. 

 It seems not to be the habit of the birds to go on top of 

 the leaf and pull the fiber through, but rather to work 

 from below, and with the strong, pointed bill to make a 

 hole, through which the material is pushed. It is fastened 

 in four places, usually. One might pass a tree where 

 hangs one of these nests without noticing it, so close 

 does it hang to the leaf, were it not for the peculiar habit 

 which the bird has of leaving a group of long fibers 



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