Immature male Scott's Oriole, Union Sq Park, NYC

Immature male Scott's Oriole, Union Sq Park, NYC - Jan 2008

Initially found on December 4th 2007 by Lenore Swenson and Alice Deutsch, it was Ardith Bondi's pictures of the Union Square Park Oriole on Jan 23rd that ultimately led to its correct identification. Tentatively ID'd as an immature male Orchard Oriole, Seth Ausubel noted that it looked much more like a Scott's Oriole, potentially the first record for NY State. This caught a lot of people's attention, and drew a lot of people down to Union Square Park over the next few days. Also present was a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and the oriole has been observed feeding at the sap oozing from the sapsucker holes. This bird appears relatively tame, as you might expect for an individual that has made a temporary home in an urban park. Allowing the enthusiasm for this rare bird to die down a little, I went down to Union Sq Park on the morning of Jan 28th and took a few photos of the bird in the sun (actually about 150 of them). This is just five of the better ones. There are more at my bird photo gallery and still more waiting to be processed.

Scott's Oriole

The bird is a first winter immature male, with quite a lot of black coloring on the throat and upper breast, and black-centered green-edge feathers on the crown and nape. The back is lightly streaked. There is wear on the tail feathers and less on the primaries. Molt in Scott's Oriole tends to be variable, although generally following typical passerine molt. Flight feathers were likely not replaced at the pre-basic molt. Pre-alternate molt may or may not occur, although for first spring males it seems to be more likely than not - this bird may advance in plumage if/as it survives the winter. As it stands it seems to like the area of the Gandhi statue and was doing well off fruit offered by humans. While feeding wild birds is potentially a double-edged sword this is probably what is keeping the bird alive - it normally winters in Mexico and where it consumes both fruit and insects. In Feb-Mar of 2007 an adult male Scott's Oriole turned up at a feeder in Mechanicsburg PA, also a first state record for that species. In Jan of 2008 another apparently immature male Scott's Oriole turned up in North Carolina (see this link for pics).

Phil Jeffrey, Jan 2008