Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Bullock's Oriole

Bullock's Oriole
 The Bullock's oriole is a colorful member of the Icteridae, blackbird, family found in the western half of North America. The Bullock's oriole was named after William Bullock who was an English born collector and amateur naturalist. On a trip to Mexico he shot a Bullock's oriole and brought it back to professional naturalist and birder William Swainson who named the species after Bullock.
Bullock's Oriole
For a while the Bullock's oriole and the Baltimore oriole were combined into a single species called the northern oriole. This was primarily due to the fact that the two species do hybridize with one and other where their ranges over lap in the central portion of North America. However DNA testing revealed that the two species are not very similar so they were broken back up into two separate species.




17 comments:

Leslie: said...

Wow! So colourful - gorgeous photos!

Leslie
abcw team

TexWisGirl said...

gorgeous bird! :)

photowannabe said...

Beautiful bird. I wish we had those around here.

Adam Jones said...

That's a hell of a colourful bird. Lovely shots.

mick said...

Great photos of the Oriole. It's a very colorful bird.

Kate said...

The letter "B" is a perfect spot for your excellent photos!

Brian King said...

Gorgeous shots and brilliant colors!

??? said...

The colours are amazing.

Gemma Wiseman said...

The bright, rich gold tone is so striking on this little bird! Gorgeous photos!

Modesto Viegas said...

Good capture, nice bird!

Roger Owen Green said...

Bee-You-Tea-ful
ROG, ABC Wednesday team

Paula Scott Molokai Girl Studio said...

Yay! This is a bird that comes to our back yard in the spring and summer. I have feeders out for them and the hummers. I love them!

Maude Lynn said...

What a gorgeous bird!

Vores have said...

Great pictures :)

Stewart M said...

Splendid looking bird. Stange how birds change from being one species to two and then more. Well, I suppose it's a way to keep peoples life lists interesting!

You can collect a badge for WBW on my blog pages if you want to link back.

Stewart M – Australia

PS: sorry about the lack of thumbnails this week – will get it right for WBW #3

Pat said...

What a beautiful bird! Great shots!

Cheri said...

Quite beautiful; thanks for sharing!