ML351148731

Age and sex

Immature Male - 1

Observation details

Just arriving on island for my shift, I got out of the truck at building 16 and immediately heard an oriole vocalizing in the toyon outside my room. It didn't strike me as a Hooded Oriole (which would be very late, or early?). I was quick to retrieve bins and a camera from my room and got decent looks at the bird, snapped some photos and got a brief recording. In the recording I captured it chattering as well as one of the chur-eeeeep calls it was doing, which I thought sounded good for Orchard. As far as the plumage, it did look like a good candidate for a SY Orchard with a gray back and wings, well defined white wing bars, a completely yellow underside and black throat that extended up in front of the eye. The bill seemed to be more petite than a Hooded Oriole, but wasn't quite small enough for me to be confident about Orchard. I also thought the overall size was too big for Orchard, though still a bit small for Hooded. The tail was shorter than I would expect for a Hooded, which supported Orchard. The encounter wasn't as long as I would have liked, and I felt indecisive about the ID at the time. However, looking at the photos and consulting with others I now feel confident on the ID of Orchard Oriole.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D

Lens

EF300mm f/4L IS USM

ISO

200

Focal length

300 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/400 sec

Dimensions

1577 pixels x 1183 pixels

Original file size

452.63 KB