[52.6] BIRDS OF OREGON 



and 19, 1933, when he found two small colonies about Agency Lake and 

 Upper Klamath Lake. There has been no confirmation of the presence of 

 this bird elsewhere in Oregon, and we feel that the records from Portland 

 and vicinity should not be accepted. The species is naturally an inhabi- 

 tant of the great tule swamps, and conditions in western Oregon are not 

 particularly to its liking. 



Bullock's Oriole: 



Icterus bullocki (Swainson) 



DESCRIPTION. "Adult male in summer: Under parts, sides of head and neck, and 

 superciliary orange; narrow throat patch, crown, back of neck, back, and stripe 

 through eye, black; wings with conspicuous white patch and edgings; tail with 

 middle feathers black, changing to almost pure yellow on outer feathers. Adult 

 male in winter: like summer male, but scapulars and interscapulars edged with gray, 

 feathers of rump and upper tail coverts tipped with gray, of under parts edged with 

 whitish. Adult female: under parts lemon yellow, fading to gray on belly; throat 

 usually with more or less of black; upper parts olivaceous, fading to brownish and 

 sometimes streaked with black on back, but brightening to olive yellow or deeper 

 on rump and tail; wings with white bands. Immature male in second year: similar to 

 adult female, but lores and median line of throat black. Young in first plumage: 

 similar to female, but colors duller, washed more or less with buffy, with no trace 

 of black on the throat, and yellow sometimes almost wanting. Male: length (skins) 

 6.75-7.60, wing 3.81-4.03, tail 1.98-3.11, bill .65-. 81. Female: length (skins) 6.60- 

 7.50, wing 3.51-3.87, tail 1.73-3.11, bill .67-. 78." (Bailey) Nest: A skillfully 

 woven pendent basket, usually well out toward the end of a branch, made of dry 

 grasses, horse hair, or shredded bark. Eggs: 3 to 6, dull white or buffy, more or less 

 marked with scrawled lines of black, usually more heavily around the large end. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from southern British Columbia, Alberta, and Sas- 

 katchewan, to Lower California, Mexico, and Texas. Winters in Mexico. In 

 Oregon: Regular summer resident and breeder throughout valleys of entire State, 

 except on coast. 



BULLOCK'S ORIOLE is to the Western States what the Baltimore Oriole is 

 to the Eastern States. Throughout the West it is a bird of those valleys 

 and irrigated sections that lie in the Transition Zone. Baird (Baird, 

 Cassin, and Lawrence 1858), who listed it from The Dalles, May 7, 1855, 

 seems to have made the first published record for Oregon, and Bendire 

 (1895) seems to have been the first to collect the eggs when he took a set, 

 June 10, 1877. 



We have found it to be common throughout eastern Oregon except in 

 the higher mountains. It is primarily a bird of the river bottoms and 

 farming districts, where its brilliant colors and liquid musical notes com- 

 bine to make it a well-known and well-loved species, and there are few 

 farmsteads with a scraggly growth of cottonwoods or willows about the 

 house that do not have at least a pair of these brilliantly garbed songsters 

 as summer residents. It is less abundant, but still common, in the Rogue 



