Interesting. The text from The GBS Report (2003) is:
Olive-backed Oriole Oriolus sagittatus
A woodland and forest inhabitant that is a summer migrant to our area. It passes through the suburbs on arrival and can be quite vocal at that time. It is an accomplished vocal mimic. On most years taken individually, there is a dip in
the warmer months' abundance here, probably as the birds move away from the suburban areas to breed. However the timing of this is inconsistent. So when all years are combined on one graph, it does not show. It is rare here from May to July, then birds start
to arrive in August and increase to a peak in October then decline fairly smoothly through February, March & April when passing through the city. They are probably less conspicuous then. Although there is some random variation, overall the long-term abundance
of this species has increased. Only three records with activities at nest, they are from mid November to early December. Also dependent young from early November to early February. Graphs on page: 102, Rank: 38, Breeding Rank: 42, A = 0.05556, F = 41.80%,
W = 34.0, R = 5.119%, G = 1.09.
This does not comment much on winter time presence just “rare”, as the data did not give much basis for comment. But it and the graphs indicate that it is here
in low numbers through the winter (each month). This is based on data from 1981 to 2002. It is of course hard to distinguish if they are over wintering, as in some individuals stay on, or whether there is small numbers of different birds passing through from
elsewhere, during the winter months.
Philip
From: Canberrabirds [
On Behalf Of sandra henderson via Canberrabirds
Sent: Monday, 8 August, 2022 6:01 PM
To: John Brannan
Cc: Canberra birds
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] Early Oriole
I think think quite a few over-winter here. My last one was 3 days ago at the zoo, quite a bit of mimicry with “oriole” call every now and again
Sandra h
On Monday, 8 August 2022, John Brannan <> wrote:
Just had one in my garden here in Florey, going through its repertoire of mimicry, including (in a clear attempt to confuse) a Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike.
John
