#icterus parisorum

[podartists]

Icterus bullockii | Icterus cucullatus nelsoni | Icterus parisorum | Pyrocephalus rubinus mexicanus

Plate XXXI | Die Nordamerikanische Vogelwelt (1891)

[birdblues]

Scott’s Oriole

[fatchance]

Recent birds: Yucca oriole / calandria tunera (Icterus parisorum) on an agave mast at Ash Canyon.

The American Ornithological Society persists in calling this Scott's oriole. It is a glorious bird, with an official common name honoring a truly unworthy man, Winfield Scott, whose atrocities include the forced removal and genocide of Seminole, Muscogee, and Cherokee peoples under the direction of a variety of early U.S. presidents. Such honorifics are almost always problematic. What did Scott care about birds? What did he care about people?

Issues of Scott's conduct aside, don't birds deserve bird names, something descriptive of their appearance or habits or place? Yucca oriole is an eminently sensible name for a bird that constructs a woven nest of yucca fibers. It's hard to relearn after years of habit, but it's the only name I'll use from now on.

[hello-birdies]

Icterus parisorum by mmeastman

[fatchance]

Recent jelly birds: female and male Bullock’s oriole, and Scott’s oriole, at an Ash Canyon jelly feeder. At the bird sanctuary we proudly serve Welch’s ©  grape jelly to our discerning bird visitors. 

Bullock’s oriole / calandria cejas naranjas (Icterus bullockii).

Scott’s oriole / calandria tunera (Icterus parisorum)

Please click any photo in the set for enlarged views.

[fatchance]

Scott’s orioles (Icterus parisorum) at Ash Canyon. Shown here are a male Scott’s and his recently fledged offspring, still staying close and still calling to dad for food.

Etymology note, from the Cornell Lab: “Orioles ... are grouped in the genus Icterus, derived from the Greek ikteros, meaning “jaundice.” In ancient Greece, the sighting of a small yellow bird was believed to provide a cure for jaundice. In the earliest days of North American ornithology, the discoverers* of bright yellow and orange birds were apparently still aware of the old lore.”

* As though the indigenous people of the desert southwest were waiting in trembling anticipation for some old white guys to show up and give these birds Latin names before they could see and know them for the first time. Sheesh. “Discoverers” indeed.

[squawkoverflow]

Scott's Oriole (Icterus parisorum)

The Birds of California (1923)

[wingedjewels]

Scott's Oriole (Icterus parisorum), Portal, Arizona by Daniel J. Field