Return of Bird of the Week: Crested Oropendola

While there are nine or ten recognized species of oropendolas,[^1] WC has only managed photos of five of them. The fifth and last WC has documented is the Crested Oropendola.

Crested Oropendola, Ecuador

WC wouldn’t usually use a feeder shot like this, but it’s the only image WC has that actually shows the “crest” that gives the species its common name. Most of the time, the signature “crest” is laid down against the top of the head.

Crested Oropendola, Peru

This is probably the most common and widespread of the oropendolas, ranging from Panama south to northern Argentina. It’s also probably the oropendola with the broadest diet, ranging from large insects to nectar. It may be the generalist diet that has allowed it to have the widest distribution.

Like all oropendolas, it is a colonial nester. The pendulous nests are usually built from a single large tree at the margin of the forest. Unlike other oropendolas, the colony is dominated by a single male who does most of the breeding, sometimes with as many as 30-40 females.

In the field, it is best identified by the very pale, almost whitish, and slightly down-curved bill. The song is also distinctive, something like a liquid vibrato CreeeEEEoooooooooo. 

These are the largest members of the Icterid family of birds, a group that includes meadowlarks, blackbirds and grackles. They are an extremely successful family; WC has seen Icterids in Interior Alaska and down to Tierra del Fuego at the toe of South America. But we’ll take a break from Icterids and explore some of the other amazing families of birds.

For more bird photographs, please visit Frozen Feather Images.

[^1]: It could be thirteen species or it may be nine. Oropendolas are woefully under-studied. Ornithologists can’t even agree on what genus today’s bird of the week belongs in, Psarocoliusor Gymnostinops. You’d think a big, flashy family of birds would be better studied. You’d be wrong.

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