Streak-backed Oriole

The streak-backed oriole is 19 to 21 cm (7.5 to 8.3 in) long. Males weigh an average of about 43 g (1.5 oz) and females about 35 g (1.2 oz). Adult males of the nominate subspecies I. p. pustulatus have a deep orange head and breast with black lores, chin, and upper breast. Their upperparts are orange with heavy black streaks on the mantle and back. Their tail is mostly black with white tips on all the feathers and white outer edges on the outermost pair. Their lesser upperwing coverts are orange and the rest of their upperwing is mostly black. Their median coverts have wide white tips that show as large bars on the closed wing and the greater coverts have whitish edges and tips that show as pale panels. The wing's flight feathers also have white edges. Their underparts below the breast are orange to orange-yellow. Adult females have the same pattern as males but are somewhat less richly colored. Both sexes of all subspecies have a dark brown iris, a black bill with a bluish gray inner half of the mandible, and bluish gray legs and feet.

The other subspecies of the streak-backed oriole differ from the nominate and each other thus:

I. p. microstictus: orange-yellow to fiery orange-red head and breast, smaller black streaks on mantle and back; female sometimes greener than male I. p. graysonii: orange-yellow head and fewer black streaks I. p. …

Though some maps show that the streak-backed oriole has a disjunct distribution with a gap between populations in Guatemala, others show a continuous presence through that country. The subspecies are found thus:

I. p. microstictus: from Chihuahua in northwestern Mexico south to Colima I. p. pustulatus southwestern Mexico from Colima to northern Oaxaca, Puebla, and Veracruz I. p. graysonii: Tres Marías Island off the coast of Nayarit in west-central Mexico I. p. formosus: from Oaxaca and Chiapas in southern Mexico into Guatemala I. p. maximus: upper Rio Negro River valley in north-central Guatemala I. p. alticola: from Guatemala into northeastern Honduras I. p. pustuloides: San Miguel volcano in east-central El Salvador I. p. sclateri: from southern El Salvador south through Nicaragua into northwestern Costa Rica Small numbers of subspecies I. p. microstictus are regularly observed in southern parts of the U. S. states of Arizona and California and the subspecies has nested in Arizona. There are also confirmed records of the species as far north as Oregon and Wisconsin. The streak-backed oriole inhabits low elevation scrublands, deciduous forest both primary and secondary, gallery forest, savanna, mangroves, and roadsides and villages with trees. Overall it ranges in elevation from sea level to 1,900 m (6,200 ft). South of Mexico overall it ranges up to 1,750 m (5,700 ft). …

The streak-backed oriole feeds primarily on insects and other invertebrates, fruits, and nectar. It captures prey by gleaning and probing bark, twigs, and leaves. It usually forages in pairs or in small family groups.