Oriolus sagittatus
Males and females have an olive-green head and back, grey wings and tail, and cream underparts, streaked with brown. They both have a bright red eye and reddish beak. Females can be distinguished from males by a paler bill, duller-green back, and an extension of the streaked underparts up to the chin.
Not Threatened
Males and females have an olive-green head and back, grey wings and tail, and cream underparts, streaked with brown. They both have a bright red eye and reddish beak. Females can be distinguished from males by a paler bill, duller-green back, and an extension of the streaked underparts up to the chin.
Olive-backed Orioles have a reddish bill, which easily distinguishes the species from the similar Figbird Sphecotheres viridis, which has a blackish bill. It also lacks the Figbird's bare eye skin and has red rather than dark eyes. The Yellow Oriole O. flavocinctus is generally more yellow overall.
26-28 cm, 96 g
Taxonomy: Coracias sagittata Latham, 1801, “Nova Wallia Australi” = Sydney, Australia. Forms a superspecies with O. szalayi, O. phaeochromus, O. forsteni, O. bouroensis and O. melanotis, all of which, together with more distantly related O. flavocinctus, were formerly placed in the alternative genus Mimeta on basis of skull characteristics. Races probably intergrade, but more study needed. Four subspecies recognized. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)
Seasonal movements: Sedentary in the north of its range, but appears to be a summer migrant to the more southern part of its range. Small groups undertake nomadic movements, following fruiting trees during the autumn and winter.
Subspecies and Distribution:
- * magnirostris van Oort, 1910 - SC New Guinea. * affinis Gould, 1848 - NW and NC Australia (E to S Gulf of Carpentaria). * grisescens Schodde & Mason, 1999 - NE Australia (Cape York, in N Queensland). * sagittatus (Latham, 1801) - NE Australia (except Cape York) S to Victoria and SE South Australia; many migrate N in winter.
Lives in forests, woodlands and rainforests, as well as well-treed urban areas, particularly parks and golf courses.
Olive-backed Orioles are less gregarious than Figbirds, with which they are often seen foraging. Although they are sometimes seen in small groups, particularly in autumn and winter, they more often occur alone or in pairs, feeding on insects and fruit in canopy trees.
The female Olive-backed Oriole builds a cup-shaped nest which is attached by its rim to a horizontal fork on the outer-edge of the foliage of a tree or tall shrub. Nests are usually around 10 m above the ground, and built of strips of bark and grass, bound with spider web. The male does not build the nest, or incubate the eggs, but he feeds the young after the eggs hatch