Loriot d'Europe

Identification

The male is striking in the typical oriole black and yellow plumage, but the female is a drabber green bird. Orioles are shy, and even the male is remarkably difficult to see in the dappled yellow and green leaves of the canopy. In flight they look somewhat like a thrush, strong and direct with some shallow dips over longer distances.<p>Its call is a harsh "kweeaahk", but the song is a fluting weela-wee-ooo or or-iii-ole, unmistakable once heard, often with subtle variations between each phrase.<p>The male of the Indian golden oriole (Oriolus kundoo) has a black eye-stripe extending behind the eye, has a longer and paler red bill and has more yellow in the plumage.

Taxonomie

The Eurasian golden oriole was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae and given the binomial name Coracias oriolus. The species is now placed in the genus Oriolus that Linnaeus introduced in 1766.<p>The Eurasian golden oriole and the Indian golden oriole were formerly considered conspecific, but in 2005 they were treated as separate species by the ornithologists Pamela Rasmussen and John Anderton, in the first edition of their Birds of South Asia. Support for this split was provided by a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2010, and most ornithologists now treat the Indian golden oriole as a separate species. Alternate names for the Eurasian golden oriole include the European golden oriole and Western Eurasian golden oriole. The species is monotypic.<p>The name "oriole" was first used in the 18th century and is an adaptation of the scientific Latin genus name, which is derived from the Classical Latin "aureolus" meaning golden. Various forms of "oriole" have existed in Romance languages since the 12th and 13th centuries. Albertus Magnus used the Latin form oriolus in about 1250 and erroneously stated that it was onomatopoeic because of the golden oriole's song. In medieval England its name, derived from the song, was the woodwele.

Nom scientifique

Oriolus oriolus

Autorité

(Linnaeus, 1758)

Ordre

Passériformes

Famille

Oriolidé

Genre

Oriolus

Répartition et habitat

The breeding range of this species spans from western Europe and Scandinavia east to China. They winter in central and southern Africa. They generally migrate during the night, but may travel during the day in the spring migration. During the autumn migration they migrate via the Eastern Mediterranean where they feed on fruit; they are often considered a pest in this region because of this. They formerly bred in Great Britain; the last confirmed breeding was in 2009 in East Anglia.<p>The Eurasian golden oriole inhabits a range of habitats. In Western Europe they prefer open broadleaf forests and plantations, copses, riverine forests, orchards, large gardens; in Eastern Europe they may inhabit more continuous forests as well as mixed or coniferous forests. They generally avoid treeless habitats but may forage there. In their wintering habitat they are found in semi-arid to humid woodland, tall forests, riverine forest, woodland/savanna mosaic and savanna.

Aire de reproduction

PAL : w Eurasia

Aire hors reproduction

Africa

Migration

Migrateurs complets

Comportement

Mode de migration: Migrateurs complets.

Conservation

Tendance de la population: stable.

Tendance de la population

stable