Male Yellow Oriole

Sightings
This male Yellow Oriole was seen in the lowland area of Trinidad at the Arena Forest Reserve. It was raining very hard but the bird continued to forage in these conditions.

Species
Yellow Oriole Icterus nigrogularis is also known as the ‘plantain’ and ‘small corn bird’, and in Venezuela it is known as ‘gonzalito’. It breeds in northern South America in Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad, the Guianas and parts of northern Brazil. It is a bird of open woodland, scrub and gardens. There are four subspecies of Yellow Oriole of which I. n. trinitatis is only found on Trinidad and in north east Venezuela.

Status and Distribution
Yellow Oriole is a species of least concern with a stable population in its range of between two and three million square kilometres. It is a common and widespread resident on Trinidad but absent from Tobago.

References
Asa Wright Centre; BirdLife; Wikipedia; World Bird Names; Kenefick, M., Restall, R., and Hayes, F. (2015) Birds of Trinidad and Tobago, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 250.

Photograph
Photographed at 1/500th of a second, f5.6 at ISO 640