Guarding the Nest: Male Baltimore Oriole

The brightly colored male Baltimore Oriole keeps a close lookout over the nest.

As I related in the previous post, he was quick to rush in when an intruder landed in the sacred nest tree. I have visited the nesting site three times so far. Although never far away; this male is not nearly as aggressive since the nest building is complete. The female continues to flit about, coming and going from the nest but is not carrying nest building materials. I assume she is now laying her clutch of 4 to 6 eggs.

While visiting the nest tree last evening, I was treated to a rare view of a yellow-billed Cuckoo. The Cuckoo landed in a place that made capturing a post-worthy photograph impossible; but I was able to shoot a couple of frames which allowed me to make positive identification. Previously I posted a shot from my first sighting of a Black-billed Cuckoo. Amazingly, these are my very first encounters with Cuckoo’s and both sightings of the two different species were made in the very same brushy ravine only a few days apart.

Modern Nest-Building: Baltimore Oriole

The female Baltimore Oriole, not content with traditional nest materials, gathers plastic strips with which to build her nest.

As I sat watching, she made numerous trips, each time returning with these plastic strips. After surveying her surroundings, she would hop into her nest and weave the new material into the nest basket that was taking shape.

During this time the male kept his distance except when another bird happened to stop in the nest tree, then he would arrive calling loudly, fluttering and diving until the intruder left. He repeated this tactic each time visitors dropped by with but one exception, the cat-birds. For reasons only known to him, he completely ignored a pair of catbirds who spent quite a few minutes catching and eating caterpillars.