Spot Hooded Oriole (Icterus cucullatus)

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Hooded Orioles are fairly large songbirds with longer and more delicate bodies than other orioles. They also have long rounded tails and longish necks and the bill is curved slightly downward. Adult males are brilliant black and vary from brilliant yellow to flame orange. They have black tails, throats, and wings and yellow to orange rumps, hoods, and bellies. The black throat extends up the face like a little mask around the eye and down the chest to make a bib. Adult males flash white wingbars. Females are olive-yellow overall with grayer backs and white wingbars. Juvenile males look like females, but with black throats. Diet and behavioral habits: One of Balboa Parks common summer residents, Hooded Orioles live in open woodlands with scattered trees, especially palm trees. Hooded Orioles are acrobatic foragers and often hang upside down while they grab their prey, but they tend to forage sluggishly among leaves and branches. Their diet includes berries, nectar, and insects, like caterpillars, beetles, wasps, ants, and many others. Nesting behaviors: The Hooded Oriole nest is often placed in palm or large yucca, sewn to underside of large overhanging leaf; usually 10-50' above ground, but can be lower. Sometimes placed under banana leaf, in clump of mistletoe or Spanish moss, or suspended from branch of deciduous tree. Nest is a woven hanging pouch of grass and plant fibers, lined with plant down, hair, feathers. The female builds the nest, but the male may help bring material.

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