oriole
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Related to northern oriole: Bullock's oriole
oriole
1. any songbird of the mainly tropical Old World family Oriolidae, such as Oriolus oriolus (golden oriole), having a long pointed bill and a mostly yellow-and-black plumage
2. any American songbird of the family Icteridae, esp those of the genus Icterus, such as the Baltimore oriole, with a typical male plumage of black with either orange or yellow
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Oriole
(Oriolus oriolus), a bird of the order Passeriformes. Length, approximately 25 cm. The male’s plumage is golden yellow with black markings, and the female and young are greenish with spotted breasts. The oriole is prevalent in northwest Africa, Europe, and Asia; in the USSR it lives in deciduous and mixed forests. Orioles reproduce once a year. They build hanging nests attached to the forks of trees at a height of 1.5–20 m. The female lays three to five eggs. The oriole’s song is flutelike, and its loud cry sounds like the meowing of an angry cat. The oriole feeds on insects, and less often on berries. It is a bird of passage, wintering in Africa.
A similar species is found in the Far East: the Chinese oriole (Oriolus chinensis).
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.