Orchard Oriole

The Orchard Oriole is a southern species whose range has slowly expanded into the Granite State. As recently as the 1980s it was considered rare and of irregular occurrence, and during the Breeding bird Atlas Orchard Orioles were only found in six places in extreme southeastern New Hampshire. Since that time it has become more reliable in the southeast, although its center of abundance remains a swath from Rochester to Nashua. It has also expanded up the Merrimack River as far as Concord and the Connecticut as far as Haverhill, although it remains patchily distributed and irregular in the northern portions of its range along those rivers.

Although adult males are a striking black and chestnut, males in their first year are greenish yellow with a black face and throat. Females look like young males but without the black. Because of their smaller size (compared to Baltimore Orioles) and yellowish coloration, females and young males are sometimes confused with warblers if not seen well. Like other orioles, their song is rich and warbling; sometimes it is compared to that of a Purple Finch.

The species presumably got its name because it often occurs in open forest with scattered trees, including orchards, although these are not commonly used in New Hampshire. Instead look for it in low trees and shrubs, often near water, rather than dense mature forest. Like other orioles the nest is a hanging basket woven of plant fibers, but these are more spherical in shape than the deep pendulant nest of the Baltimore Oriole. These nests are also more likely to be open at the top rather than having a somewhat hidden side entrance.