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Western Oriole | Oriolus brachyrynchus
Blauwvleugelwielewaal | Oropéndola Cabecinegra
Western Oriole is an oriole of the West and Central African rainforest which, within the region, reaches only the forested north-west of Angola. It looks much like the better-known Black-Headed Oriole but is smaller and has grey-edged wings; anyone seeing a black-headed oriole in Cabinda or the forest of Uíge should look carefully to see which of three species it is.
Voice
Clear, liquid whistles, often in short phrases of three or four notes such as hoo-wee-lee-oo, and a nasal, cat-like nyeh or myaah. The song is less full than that of Black-Headed Oriole.
Recording: Étienne Leroy — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
20–21 cm. Head, throat and upper breast are black. A narrow yellow nape collar separates the head from the olive-green mantle. The underparts are golden yellow. The wings are black with blue-grey edges to the secondaries and tertials, forming a greyish panel, and a small white or pale yellow spot on the primary coverts. The central tail feathers are olive green, the outer ones black with yellow tips. Bill pinkish red, eye red. The sexes are alike. Juveniles have a dull, olive-streaked head, a streaked throat and a dark bill.
Confusion species
Black-Winged Oriole Oriolus nigripennis occurs in the same forest and is the same size, but has wholly black wings without a grey panel and black central tail feathers; its mantle is yellower. Black-Headed Oriole Oriolus larvatus is larger, with a yellower mantle, black wings with white edgings and a clear white wing patch, and lives in woodland rather than rainforest.
Habitat
Canopy and mid-storey of moist lowland forest, gallery forest, mature secondary forest and the forest–savanna transition, also in shady coffee plantations. It forages on caterpillars and other insects and on fruit, often in mixed flocks.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Within the region only in north-western Angola: Cabinda and the forested parts of Zaire, Uíge and Cuanza Norte provinces, south along the wooded escarpment. Beyond the region from Guinea and Sierra Leone through the rainforest zone of West and Central Africa to the Congo Basin and Uganda.
How and when to look
Look for it in the canopy of the Maiombe forest in Cabinda or in the coffee forests of Uíge, and follow the nasal call. With a black-headed oriole in this forest check the wing first: a grey panel means this species, all black means Black-Winged Oriole.
Conservation status
Not threatened; common over much of its range. In Angola its habitat is small and the forest is under pressure from logging and conversion to farmland, but the species tolerates secondary forest and plantations reasonably well.
Scientific name
Oriolus brachyrynchus | Swainson, 1837
Swainson described the species in 1837 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Oriolus was introduced in 1766 by Linnaeus. Oriolus is medieval Latin for the Golden Oriole; the name is onomatopoeic, echoing the Eurasian Golden Oriole's melodious calls. brachyrynchus comes from the Greek brakhus, 'short', and rhunkhos, 'bill' — for the relatively short bill. The specimen the first description was based on came from Sierra Leone.