Here's a bird that I've never seen in my gardens before. I live in Southern
California, not the east coast, so we don't see orioles very often in my
neck of the woods. In fact I personally don't recall ever seeing one.
Nonetheless there are two oriole species listed as being visitors to So Cal:
the Hooded
and the Bullock's.

This bird doesn't look like either one of them except it resembles the male
Bullock's coloration but it's darker than the illustrations in my books
(they show the Bullock's is more yellowish instead of orange) and the head
markings are all wrong. It's not even close to the Hooded Oriole which
appears to be bright yellow with a black chin.

These birds were fairly large. I'd guestimate approx 8" to 9" length.

What is this thing?


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Paddy's Pig
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To reply its bell not bull