Icterus maculialatus
The Bar-winged Oriole, *Icterus maculialatus*, is a striking member of the New World oriole family, celebrated for its vibrant plumage and distinctive wing markings. Males typically display a brilliant orange-yellow body, sharply contrasting with a glossy black hood, back, and wings. Its defining feature, from which it derives its common name, is the prominent white to pale yellow double-bar across its black wing coverts, often bordered by a thin white edgings on the primaries, providing a 'm...
This oriole prefers semi-open tropical and subtropical broadleaf forests, forest edges, riparian corridors, and mature woodlands, often found at elevations from sea level up to 1,500 meters.
Their diet consists primarily of large insects and other arthropods, supplemented by nectar from flowering plants and a variety of ripe fruits, especially berries.
Bar-winged Orioles are diurnal and generally solitary or found in pairs outside of the non-breeding season, occasionally joining mixed-species foraging flocks. They are agile foragers, meticulously gleaning insects from foliage and probing flowers for nectar. During the breeding season, males est...
The Bar-winged Oriole is endemic to the humid tropical and subtropical lowlands and foothills of Central America, primarily found from southern Mexico (Chiapas and Oaxaca) south through Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, extending into western Panama. Isolated po...
Near Threatened
- The 'maculialatus' in its scientific name roughly translates to 'spotted or barred wing', a perfect descriptor for its most distinctive field mark. - Bar-winged Orioles are expert weavers, constructing intricate, hanging pouch nests that can be over a foot long and are almost invisible among de...