The Arizona Hooded Oriole 



the blackbirds will forsake the choicest "Bings" if a neighbor starts 

 plowing. It is as gleaners of cut-worms and grubs that these birds earn 

 our warmest approbation; and from their close attendance upon the 

 plow it is pretty safe to say that the Brewer Blackbird earns his keep 

 ten times over. 



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Taken in Santa Barbara County Photo by the Author 



BREWER BLACKBIRDS EATING OATS 



No. 15 



Arizona Hooded Oriole 



A. O. U. No. 505a. Icterus cucullatus nelsoni Ridgway. 



Synonym. — Palm Oriole. 



Description. — Adult male in breeding plumage: Black, white, and cadmium- 

 yellow; a glossy black mask, involving lower anterior portion of face, chin, throat, and 

 chest (with convex posterior outline), sharply set off against rich cadmium-yellow of 

 head, neck, and underparts; the yellow continuous with that of lower back, rump, and 

 upper tail-coverts; axillars and under wing-coverts paler yellow (lemon-chrome); upper 

 back, broadly continuous with scapulars and lesser wing coverts, glossy black; wings 

 and tail chiefly black; middle coverts and tips of greater coverts white, the flight feathers 

 and tertials margined with white upon exposed webs; the rectrices tipped, or not, with 

 white. Bill and feet black. Adult male in fall and winter: As in spring, but orange- 

 yellow duller, washed above with olivaceous; the scapulars, etc., tipped with grayish 

 olive. Adult female: Quite different. Back dull brownish gray, washed with oliva- 

 ceous, everywhere shading — into fuscous of wings, into livelier olivaceous on head and 

 neck, on sides into olive-yellow of underparts; rectrices shaded with olive-yellow on 

 exposed portion (save on middle pair, which is faintly dusky-barred); middle and 

 greater wing-coverts tipped with whitish, forming two inconspicuous bands; flight 

 feathers margined with light brownish gray; olive-yellow of underparts clearing to 

 wax-yellow on breast and under tail-coverts. Juvenals and immature birds resemble 

 the female parent, but are duller. First year male in spring: Much like adult female, 

 but showing increase of yellow, especially below, with a resulting greenish or olivaceous 



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