Monday, May 26, 2008

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.

6 comments:

my little corner said...

You have some really great pictures I have enjoyed looking at all the great birds..
Thnks for stopping by my blog.

"niece"

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Salty: Very nicely done on this photo also. Keep them coming.

DeeMom said...

Beautiful bird and wonderful information on the nest building

A yellow-billed Cuckoo, ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm need to look into that bird, sounds interesting

photowannabe said...

The Oriole is so colorful. Thanks for all your information on the birds.

Meggie said...

That is one beautiful bird!

Tom said...

These are beautiful birds Salty.. I do hope both of the Cuckoo's show up again.