Baltimore Oriole singing
Icterus galbula
Baltimore Oriole · Green-Wood Cemetery · 16 May 2026
A Baltimore Oriole singing from the canopy at Green-Wood in May, just back from Central America to breed in the tall trees of the city's parks and cemeteries. Orioles are birds of open woodland and shade trees across the East, and they nest at the tips of high outer branches.
The name predates the bird's arrival in Maryland by centuries: it was named for Lord Baltimore, whose coat of arms happened to be black and gold. The song is a loose, flutey series of whistles, distinctive enough to place before the bird is found. The nest is a deep, sock-shaped bag woven from plant fibre, slung where it is hardest for a climbing predator to reach.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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