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Australian Wildlife

  Olive-backed Oriole (Oriolus sagittatus)





Olive-backed Oriole | Oriolus sagittatus photo
Olive-backed Oriole in Canberra, Australia.

Image by Duncan McCaskill - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)

Olive-backed Oriole | Oriolus sagittatus photo
A juvenile Olive-backed Oriole in Canberra, Australia

Image by Duncan McCaskill - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)







OLIVE-BACKED ORIOLE FACTS

Description
The Olive-backed Oriole has an olive-green head and back, grey wings and tail, and cream underparts, streaked with brown. The eye is red, and beak is reddish too. The female has paler bill and duller-green back, and more streaking on the chest and throat.

Size
27cm

Habitat
forests, woodlands, rainforest, urban parks

Food
feeds in tree canopy on insects and fruit

Breeding
Builds a cup-shaped nest of bark and grass, bound with spider web. Nest is attached by its rim to a horizontal fork on an outer branch of tree or tall shrub, around 10m above the ground. Lays 2-3 eggs.

Range
coastal regions of northern and eastern Australia from the Kimberley region in Western Australia, around the east coast to Adelaide in South Australia.

distribution map showing range of Oriolus sagittatus in Australia

Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Notes
The Olive-backed Oriole look similar to the Figbird. The key differences are: Figbird has black bill and dark eyes. Oriole has red bill and red eyes. Figbird has bare skin around eye.



Classification
Class:Aves
Order:Passeriformes
Family:Oriolidae
Genus:Oriolus
Species:sagittatus
Common Name:Olive-backed Oriole

Relatives in same Genus
  Yellow Oriole (O. flavocinctus)