220 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



ICTERUS CUCULLATUS NELSONI Ridgway 



Arizona Hooded Oriole 



Plates 14 and 15 



Contributed by Robert S. Woods 



HABITS 



Despite its shy, quiet ways, probably few birds of the Southwest 

 have impressed themselves upon the average human consciousness 

 more definitely than the Arizona hooded oriole. This is due not only 

 to the eye-arresting coloration of the adult male, but to the fact that 

 it finds its most congenial surroundings among plantings of palms 

 and flowering shrubs, the former furnishing nesting sites and material, 

 and the latter a favorite food. In spring and summer it is a common 

 inhabitant of city parks and gardens, though it manifests none of the 

 boldness and assurance that characterize some of our dooryard birds. 



In the United States, the Arizona hooded oriole is a summer visitant 

 to the southern portions of New Mexico and Arizona, and southeastern 

 California. Typically a species of the Lower Sonoran Zone, the hooded 

 oriole is seldom seen among the yuccas and junipers frequented by 

 Scott's oriole. Previous to the large-scale development of irrigation, 

 it appears to have been confined mainly to woodlands bordering the 

 watercourses of the lower country. Much of its territory is shared 

 by Bullock's oriole, which sounds its ringing notes from the tops of 

 eucalyptus or cottonwood trees while the hooded oriole makes its 

 more silent way through the shrubbery and branches below. 



Concerning the haunts and habits of the hooded oriole in southern 

 Arizona, H. W. Henshaw (1875) said: "It shuns the arid districts, 

 and is found only in the fringes of deciduous trees along the streams. 

 Here it seeks its food among the foliage of the cottonwoods, and flies 

 from thence to the low bushes on the canon sides, spending much of 

 its time among them, gleaning insects from the branches, or even 

 descending occasionally to the ground. I did not hear the song; the 

 birds, at the time of my acquaintance with them, being busy in pro- 

 viding for their young, and seeming to find then - time too fully occupied 

 to devote any to music. Their common notes are a rolling chatter, 

 which somewhat resembles that of our common Baltimore Oriole, 

 but is much weaker and fainter." 



Also referring to conditions of an earlier day, Bendire (1895) wrote: 

 "Within our borders it is more common in southern Arizona than 

 anywhere else, and I found about twenty of its nests here during the 

 spring and summer of 1872. * * * I rarely saw one far away from 

 water at any season of the year. The dense, shady groves of cotton- 



