From Wikipedia
Not fifteen minutes ago, we were just delighted with the sight of a huge flock–20-30 at least–of crested oropendolas, working their way from the jungle in back of the house through the grove of trees on either side of the gates.
These are large (about 13″), dark-bodied birds, but with brilliant yellow tails and yellow bills. They’re quite common here–we hear them all the time in the jungle out back. But we’ve never before seen more than 2-3 at a time.
The flash of yelow from their tails as they flew from tree to tree, the bright yellow spots of color in the trees as they landed–the trees looked as if they had suddenly come into bloom with brilliant yellow flowers.
And then came the aguacero. They simply vanished.
Filed under: Chiriquí, Potrerillos Arriba, animals
Joyce, we have these birds — at least I think it is the same ones — living in the little jungle area behind us, too. If I happen to be awake around 5 am, I can see the whole flock exiting the jungle at the same time in the dim light. I’ve never been able to get a photo though.
The reason I say that I think it is the same ones is that I get the impression of a cream colored rather than bright yellow tail but maybe that is because I don’t usually see them in daylight or when I do, they are always hidden among the tree leaves for the most part.
I keep meaning to go back there to search for their very distinctive nests.
We think they’re nesting behind us, too. We have a swathe of jungle that varies between 80 and about 120 ft wide behind the house, plenty of room for nesting. When in Brasil last year, on the amazon River, I saw a treefull of oropendola nests–I couldn’t believe how many there were!–maybe 20 or even more. I have a good photo of those nests but being the duffer I am, don’t know how to insert it into this comment. Maybe I’ll add it to the original post.
As for the tail color–I know exactly what you mean about the light. I’ve learned the hard way not to be too confident about IDs in shade, or at dawn–it’s astounding how the color “changes”. When we saw the flock, it was bright out, they were flying and so the tail was spread out–hard to miss.
Joyce