Icterus spurius
Order Passeriformes
Family Icteridae
Subfamily Icterinae
♂ Adult male.— Head, throat, and upper back black; lower back, breast, and belly chestnut; wings dark brown, tail almost black.
Immature in second year.— Upper parts greenish-yellow, brightest on the rump; tail brown, tinged with greenish-yellow; throat black; under parts yellow.
♀ Adult female.— Similar to immature , but throat yellow; back browner.
Nest, a deep cup made of long green grass-blades, hung generally in apple-trees ten to fifteen feet up.
Eggs, bluish white, spotted and scrawled with black or brown.
The Orchard Oriole is a common summer resident of southern Connecticut and the lower Hudson Valley; in eastern Massachusetts it is a rare summer resident as far north as Ipswich. It is not uncommon in the valleys of the Connecticut and Housatonic, as far north as Springfield and Pittsfield, though it is far less common everywhere in Massachusetts than the Baltimore Oriole. In northern New England the Orchard Oriole does not occur. It arrives early in May, and leaves in August. The Orchard Oriole, as its name suggests, frequents apple orchards, but it is often found in low shade-trees.
The song is very different from that of the Baltimore Oriole; it is not made up of separate whistled phrases, but is a definite outburst of musical notes. It recalls the richness of the Fox Sparrow and the energy of the Purple Finch. The call-note of the Orchard Oriole suggests the chuck of a Blackbird; it has also a chatter resembling that of the Cowbird.
A bird in the adult plumage of chestnut and black is unmistakable, but the males in the second year and the females may be confused with female Baltimore Orioles; the greenish tinge of the upper parts should distinguish the female Orchard Oriole, while the pure black throat of the young male should identify him.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)