Tail flicking Orchard Oriole in Point Loma

[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2015] – Late afternoon on 18 May 2015 I caught sight of this colorful small passerine flying overhead into Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery from the east fence line. By it’s size and color, as it flew overhead, I thought it might be a Western Tanager. But as it went over me the tail looked kind of short and thin, not so lobed like a tanager, and the bill was small and sharply pointed. Luckily it landed on a nearby pine tree snag and showed quite well. A tiny oriole! I managed to keep up with it in the next eucalyptus tree and watched it for a few minutes. It’s diminuitive size, short squared-off tail, vibrant yellow coloration, nice white contrasty wing-bars, and the peculiar tail flicking to the side (!) all point to this being a female Orchard Oriole Icterus spurius. I was not familiar with the tail flicking behavior but it can be seen in the fourth photograph below where it moves its tail to the left! I researched the tail flicking behavior a bit more and found some excellent information in Jon Dunn’s summary of immature oriole identification in FIELD NOTES at the LAAS website. Apparently the tail flicking to the side is a characteristic of Orchard Oriole and the behavior is not found in other species such as the Hooded Oriole.