By the time you read this post I will officially be another year older, another year’s worth of wear on the body (actually more like 3 years based on the long injury tab) and hopefully another year wiser. All in all, I can’t complain. No longer in the corporate grinder, get to spend each day with someone who deserves better and my days are filled with activities that make me want to get up the next morning and do them all again. Life is good. This is also the first year I have been able to celebrate my special day in Vegas! Going to get a head start on that wear and tear for the year ha. Being in the city of lights, thought I would go with a fitting neon colored specimen from the birding world for today’s featured feathered friend.
How is that for an orange Lite-Brite peg (if anyone remembers what that toy was).
Hit the jump to see a few more shots and learn a bit more about our Halloween inspired bird.
For those not familiar with Mr. Orange and Black, this is an Altamira Oriole. If you want to experience one of these magnificent Orioles you likely need to do some traveling unless you happen to live in the southern tip of Texas. Those in Central or South American, you have a few more options, but for us dwelling in North America…well, it’s gonna take some effort.
The good news is once you are in their region, you should have no trouble getting it checked off your list. Every place we visited while on our annual snowbird trip to Texas last year included at least one flash of orange across the treeline or a brief stop at a local feeder filled with oranges and/or peanut butter mixture. If you are lucky you will see their spot on imitation of a Burrowing Owl…
The Altamira is my favorite Oriole and has been featured several times already on the blog (link here and here and even here). Those that are aware of my haunt addiction can appreciate the color choices and you have to appreciate a bird that wears a mask and carries around a dagger like that – Michael Meyers has nothing on this species.
Beyond the color and the easy accessibility (once in the region) they tend to be fairly accommodating to humans carrying around bazooka glass. Honestly, I think they just like looking at their reflection…”look at me, my left side is just kicking it!”
I should point out there is another imposter that roams that same region – the Hooded Oriole (link here). As most Orioles go, the males also sports the orange and black feather theme and have a similar mask and wicked weapon protruding out of their head. I find the Hoodeds have a more yellow hue than the Altamiras, but that is not the best field identifier. If you look particularly at the side of the face, you will see that the black mask curves down from the back of the eye to nearly the bottom of the bill.
The Hooded’s black on the side extends from the back of the eye straight down to the neck without the curve. Keep that distinction in mind and you should have no issues distinguishing between the males. Much easier to distinguish the females as the Altamira adults have the same coloring where the Hooded adult females lack the black markings. Of course, that also means you have to worry about distinguishing the female Hoods from the female Summer Tanagers, but that is for another post.
In case you are not sure where to find these beauties on your Texas trip, these pictures actually come from three different locations. The first set comes courtesy of the National Butterfly Center near Mission, TX. That also happens to be very close to Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park where some of these shots were taken. Lastly, there is a couple shots thrown in from Estero Llano Grande State Park – by far, our favorite birding spot in the Rio Grande Valley.
Gotta let you go – got happy feet getting ready to hit the strip for a night of fun and..well, you know the saying, we’ll be keeping those stories off the blog ha. Take care everyone, to our friends and staff back home, all I can say is it’s only slightly warmer down here.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Happy Birthday. Another year older is a good thing. My usual response when talking about age is it is better than the alternative and also a privilege all too many don’t get to enjoy. As long as the body holds out aging is a perk of living. 🙂
Your oriole is a beauty and even more colorful that the Baltimore, once known as Northern, Oriole we see here.
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Thank you Steve! I can say I have used that “the alternative sucks” line several times in the past. I really can’t complain, still kicking, doing the things I like with the person I love. Just need to spend a few more minutes in the gym these days to hopefully get this elbow back in shape and keep the rest of the parts running smoothly. We have the Baltimores back home, but I was not aware of the Northern Oriole name change – something new every day! Take care and appreciate you stopping by.
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Happy Birthday and all best wishes for your jump into another colourful year. 🙂
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Thank you! So far this year is turning out to be a very good one. A few more weeks before we head back to the cold Midwest weathers, but for now enjoying playing in the sun here in the southwestern part of the US. Hope all is going well for you across the pond.
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Wow, what colors !! And…congrats on making another year.
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Thank you Ted! It was touch and go there for a bit in the middle of the year, but somehow we made it through. So far, this looks to be a good year…hopefully injury free, but we will see – I do like to play hard ha. Appreciate you dropping in.
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Wow, what an amazing bird. Happy birthday
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Thank you, surprising how fast the years are going by these days ha. Glad you enjoyed the Oriole – they are truly a sight to see. Take care.
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Happy Birthday to a fellow Capricorn! Enjoy raising a ruckus, and thanks for bringing us the neon Altamira, a real beauty! You caught a variety of excellent postures and expressions on this little fellow.
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Another birder born in January – go figure! As we are in Vegas at the moment, Linda is keeping an eye on me to make sure I don’t get too out of control…I’ll have to wait until she goes asleep ha. Glad you enjoyed one of your Texas specialties – they are amazing to see… and these were happy to pose for the camera, can’t beat that! Take care, hope your cold snap has passed.
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Happy birthday B!
Las Vegas? Thought you were in Arizona. You won’t get many new birds on the Strip unless you are very lucky 😉 then L will give you a well deserved ding o’ the lug!
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Thank you B.! We were in Arizona .. it was cold..so we continued on to Vegas where it has been ..well, less cold. We are definitely missing our usual January weather in Texas, but the birding has been pretty good even with the cooler temps. I used to tell our mutual friend at the Cedar Journal that I should start a business where people pay me NOT to vacation near them so we wouldn’t bring the cold temps to them. We’ve been going to Vegas for so long we rarely go to the Strip anymore. Place is not what it used to be and we prefer the “nightlife” at places off the strip. Linda keeps a close eye on me when we are out here so I do my best to behave – she has a lethal right cross hehehe. Take care and hopefully I’ll be able to start posting all the new lifers on this trip as soon as I get back to my digital darkroom.
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Mention of CJ wonder why she gave up posting?
Have a good trip, keep those lifers coming, it will be great to read about them in later years 🤣🤣😂🙄
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Happy Birthday! Mr. Altamira Oriole is a handsome and sassy looking fellow. Beautiful photos.
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Thank you Tim! These years seem to be accelerating as I approach the big 60, but I can’t complain too much as at least I am stilling around to check them off. Our feathered friend was definitely feeling sassy…although I think Spunk would give it a run for the money.
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I’m feeling 65. See if I make it to 66.6 and start gathering the devilish SS.
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Happy birthday and thanks for sharing this cutie!
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Thank you Luisella, appreciate the birthday cheers. Glad you enjoyed one of more colorful feathered friends – fortunately for us, they tend to stick out in the trees so they are easier to find. Have a great rest of your weekend.
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Wow! What a brilliant color. Where does it hide the battery pack to keep that orange color so bright? Happy Birthday Brian! You aren’t missing much here, except more snow soon.
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Pretty sure it has a USB jack in its ass ha! Thanks for the birthday wishes – we miss the snow….wait, what am I saying, we just extended our stay here in Vegas! Keep an eye on the HQ for us.
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Will do. I’ll go see if the windows are covered with photocopies again.
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Superb photographs of a superb beauty!
Happy Birthday! Enjoy Vegas and don’t forget to go home.
An Oriole in West Texas caused two events. The sighting of a Bullock’s Oriole in a highway median mesquite tree had my wife scream “Stop the car! Turn around!” while trying to grab the steering wheel. This 1) almost caused a nasty car accident and 2) hooked my wife on birding forever.
Good times.
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Thank you Wally! We have already “had” to extend our stay here in Vegas do to some issues I’ll cover in an upcoming post. I can think of worse places to be when that happens ha. Bullocks are equally impressive Orioles – saw my first at Red Rock Ampitheatre. So now we know your wife’s gateway bird! For the record, I can picture perfectly how that all went down…in my case the roles were reversed and the argument that ensued probably came close to divorce level. You gotta do, what you gotta do! Thanks for giving me a good laugh tonight – take care.
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Sweet pics.
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Thanks Jerry. Really happy how these turned out. One of those birds that are fun to photograph being so pretty and full of character. Appreciate you coming by.
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Your photos of this bright oriole are as gorgeous as the birds themselves. This is not an oriole I have seen, but I’m taking comfort in the fact that once I’m in their habitat, they will be hard to miss.
Happy belated birthday. I hope you had fun at the strip.
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Thank you Tanja! You will definitely have zero problems finding them if you make it to their playgrounds. We had a LOT of fun on the birthday.. more like birthweek ha. We spent a few hours on the strip to see what was new – the Sphere is absolutely amazing, but we have more fun off strip at the surrounding casinos. Red Rocks is our favorite place to hang out and we found some nice places in Henderson that were also a lot of fun..translated…we came away plus for the night. Appreciate you dropping in.
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Birthweeks are better than birthdays. Even better are birthmonths–that way you get to celebrate your special day for an entire month. 😊
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Oooooooh, I like the sound of birthmonth!!!
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👍
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Fantastic. What a beautiful colour.
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Thank you Ronald! Definitely one of the more colorful birds we encounter on our Texas trips. Appreciate you dropping by.
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