Specialty birds in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, TX - Part 9 - Audubon's, Altamira, & Altamira-Audubon's hybrid Orioles
/This is another report on my efforts to capture images of birds that, in the United States, are seen primarily in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas. The Audubon’s, Altamira, & Altamiri-Audubons’s hybrid Orioles are featured in this post.
The combination of the Olympus OM-1 camera and the 150-400 mm f/4.5 TC lens was used to capture the images of the orioles.
Audubon’s Oriole, NABA International Butterfly Park, Texas
Focal length: 360 mm, 1/500 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 1250
Audubon's Orioles are bright yellow and black birds. The head and breast (hood) are entirely black. The remainder of the body is bright yellow except for the black tail, dark legs, and black and white feathers of the wings.
Audubon’s Orioles are not migratory. They are permanent residents of the areas they inhabit which, in the U.S., includes only part of the southern tip of Texas
Altamira Oriole, NABA International Butterfly Park, Texas
Focal length: 241 mm, 1/800 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 1600
The Altamira Oriole, the largest oriole in North America, has a yellow-orange head, a black throat, yellow belly, black wings with white wing bars, a dark tail and orange shoulder patches.
Altamira Orioles are common in Mexico and Central America, but found only in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the U.S.
Altamira-Audubons’s hybrid Oriole, NABA International Butterfly Park, Texas
Focal length: 360 mm, 1/640 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 640
Hybrids exhibiting characteristics of both Altamira and Audubon's Orioles have been observed in several locations in south Texas. Three features of the hybrids are "smudged face", "streaked mantle", and bill shape and color. 1) In hybrids the black area between the eye and the base of the bill is extended (smudged) and not nearly as restricted as it is in the Altamira. The black on the throat and breast is more extensive than that of the Altamira as well. 2) In hybrids the yellow and black feathers of the mantle (the area of the back closest to the neck) form streaks. This is not observed in either Audubon's or Altamira Orioles. 3) The bill of the hybrids is more like Audubon's than Altamira in terms of width, curvature and color.
The map is taken from eBird. The purple areas indicate places in the U.S. where the hybrids have been reported.