Orchard Orioles and the Unexpected

I’ve learned not to have an agenda for what to find when seeing or listening for birds. It’s a little like going to yard sales.  If I’m specifically looking for a white wicker basket, none will be found in a radius of twenty miles.  However, I had better be on the lookout for just about anything - because otherwise I might overlook the like-new throw rug that is perfect for my porch.  It’s the same with birdwatching.  Always be on the lookout for the unexpected bird that turns out to be something special.

 

That’s where the orchard oriole comes in.  Most people are unfamiliar with this pretty bird.  I have never set out to find an orchard oriole, which is pronounced by bird guides to be “fairly common” in the upstate.  They are lesser-known cousins of the flashier Baltimore orioles, which are black and brilliant orange, and which migrate through our area on the way to their more northern nesting grounds.  The orchard oriole does nest in upstate South Carolina.  The male orchard looks almost identical to a Baltimore male except in its hue of orange: the Baltimore is bright, but the orchard’s shade is much rustier and more subtle.  Females of both species are greenish-yellow, although Baltimore females may be more orange-tinted.

 

We’ve unexpectedly run across orchard orioles three times in our years of wildlife-watching adventures:  the first one at Huntington Beach State Park, one while on vacation at Debordieu Colony near Georgetown, and the third one just a few weeks ago on our farm property.  Mike and I were relaxing in the open doorway of the barn, enjoying the afternoon breezes.  I was certainly not particularly expecting to see one of these beauties, but an orchard oriole, like many other less common birds, tends to sneak in when a person has no idea it is coming.  

 

I saw a brief flash of something moving into the trees to my left; at first I thought it was all black, like a grackle, and then realized that this bird also had some color to it.  It lit on a branch where it could be seen, and a look through binoculars confirmed that it was an oriole.  A second look confirmed its rusty color.  And fortunately it stayed long enough that I could get my sometimes cantankerous camera focused on it and get a picture.  It stayed in the tree for a few minutes - and then it was gone.  If we hadn’t been on the lookout for movement in the trees, we would have never known it had been there. 

 

Finding something I don’t plan to find at a yard sale is always fun.  And that brief unplanned glimpse of an orchard oriole in our trees was fun also--a splash of beauty in an otherwise ordinary day.  It was all the evidence I needed to keep watching for the unexpected.