Hi all -
As David & Kathy have already reported, the Baltimore Oriole lingered
for a second day today.
Carl Haynie directed me to the bird when I arrived around 6:00 this
morning. Kathy's message gives the best directions for the area in
which it has been hanging out -- from a bit beyond the gate where the
interpretive trail breaks off from the off-leash area down to the
dog-launch spot across from the Rowing Club.
The 7-8 whistled notes of the bird are the best way to track it down.
It is singing the same song over and over, without much variation.
Listening to my cds back home, I'd have to say the 2 songs it
reminded me most of were Baltimore Oriole & Scotts Oriole. The
Baltimore Oriole recordings include a lot more variation than this
particular individual was offering, but that variation includes some
nice whistled phrases very similar to the Marymoor bird. The
recordings of the Scotts' whistled song seemed to repeat consistently
as the Marymoor bird did, but sounds more complex maybe than the bird
here. It would be nice to hear from some of y'all with East Coast
experience whether a Baltimore Oriole stuck on the same whistled song
is common or not - I just don't have that experience to know.


Beyond this, here's what else I observed once I got on the bird:
The head it all black, the body is more yellowish-orange than orange.
The yellow fades a bit to paler yellow on the lower belly.
The outer tail feathers are yellow-organge to the tip. From below, it
was possible to see at least 3 pairs of outer tail feathers clearly
and they all had the same solid yellowy color. The bird often flares
its tail as it sings. The central tail feathers, visible especially
from above, are black. This tail pattern should help to rule out
something like Scott's Oriole, if the song & color is not orange
enough to fully confirm a Baltimore.

The lower back was the same yellowish-orange color as the breast, and
unstreaked. I believe the upper back was black, but I wasn't as
careful about noting that [the lower back often showed through
between the not quite fully closed wings, while the black of the
upper back could conceivably have been the wings themselves].
White areas on the wing were limited, not as extensive as a Bullocks Oriole.

My sense of the bill was that it was pretty straight & pointed,
though I don't know that I got definitive looks at it.

Thanks again to David, and I look forward to more descriptions of
this great new Marymoor bird -

Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA
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