Maroon Oriole

Oriolus trailii ardens

Endemic Subspecies

The Maroon Oriole is a medium-sized (25 cm) bird, the male having a black hood and wings, a deep red body and tail and a yellowish iris.  The bill and legs are gray.  The female is similarly patterned but is dark gray on the back, and has a light grayish belly with heavy blackish streaks.  The differences between the Taiwan and mainland subspecies are not obvious in the field.

The Maroon Oriole feeds on wild figs, berries, insects and nectar.  It prefers moist deciduous and evergreen forests in hills from 150-700m.  Usually seen singly or in pairs, it keeps to the canopy and sometimes joins mixed-species flocks.  Its nest is a large deep cup of woven fibres, placed in the fork of a high branch near the tree top.  Both sexes share in parental duties.  In Taiwan the Maroon Oriole is an uncommon resident year-round.  Its population has been diminished by the cutting of lowland primary and secondary broadleaved forest and is estimated at just a few hundred individuals.

References:  A Guide to Threatened Birds of Taiwan, BirdLife International Red Data Book, 2005  (Woei-horng Fang); A Field Guide to the Birds of China (Mackinnon and Phillipps); 100 Common Birds of Taiwan (Wild Bird Society of Taipei); N. J. Collar, “Endemic subspecies of Taiwan birds—first impressions”, in Birding ASIA, Number 2, December 2004