The Eurasian golden oriole (Oriolus oriolus), also known as the common golden oriole, is a species of passerine bird and the only Old World oriole breeding in Northern Hemisphere temperate regions. It is a summer migrant in Europe and the Palearctic and spends the winter season in central and southern Africa.
Taxonomy and systematics
The Eurasian golden oriole was formally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He named the species Coracias oriolus, assigning it to the genus Coracias, which now contains only rollers. The species is now placed in the genus Oriolus that Linnaeus introduced in 1766, creating a tautonym. Support for this split was provided by a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2010, and most ornithologists now treat the Indian golden oriole as a separate species. Alternate names for the Eurasian golden oriole include the European golden oriole and western Eurasian golden oriole. The species is monotypic; no subspecies are recognized.
Etymology
The name "oriole" was first used in the 18th century and is an adaptation of the scientific Latin genus name, which is derived from the Classical Latin "aureolus" meaning golden. Various forms of "oriole" have existed in Romance languages since the 12th and 13th centuries. Albertus Magnus used the Latin form oriolus in about 1250 and erroneously stated that it was onomatopoeic because of the golden oriole's song. In medieval England, its name, derived from the song, was the woodwele.
Description
The male is striking in the typical oriole black and yellow plumage, but the female is a drabber green bird. Orioles are shy, and even the male is remarkably difficult to see in the dappled yellow and green leaves of the canopy. In flight they look somewhat like a thrush, strong and direct with some shallow dips over longer distances.
Its call is a harsh "kweeaahk", but the song is a fluting weela-wee-ooo or or-iii-ole, unmistakable once heard, often with subtle variations between each phrase.
The male of the Indian golden oriole (Oriolus kundoo) has a black eye-stripe extending behind the eye, has a longer and paler red bill and has more yellow in the plumage.
Distribution and habitat
The breeding range of this species spans from western Europe and Scandinavia east to China. They winter in central and southern Africa. They formerly bred in Great Britain; the last confirmed breeding was in 2009 in East Anglia.
The Eurasian golden oriole inhabits a range of habitats. In Western Europe they prefer open broadleaf forests and plantations, copses, riverine forests, orchards, large gardens; in Eastern Europe they may inhabit more continuous forests as well as mixed or coniferous forests. They generally avoid treeless habitats but may forage there. In their wintering habitat they are found in semi-arid to humid woodland, tall forests, riverine forest, woodland/savanna mosaic and savanna.<!--Euring mistakenly gives the age as 10 yrs and 11 months-->
Feeding
They feed on insects and fruit, using their bills to pick insects out of crevices.
Conservation
Golden orioles have an extremely large range with large populations that are apparently stable. Therefore, they are evaluated as least concern by BirdLife International.