Olive-backed Oriole

The Olive-backed Oriole inhabits eucalypt woodlands up and down the eastern seaboard of Australia. In this district, the bird is a spring-summer migrant – many Gippsland birdwatchers nominate the call of their first Oriole for the season as the harbinger of spring.

The bird survey team of the Friends of Drouin’s Trees was a little surprised to see and hear an Oriole in Golden Whistler Reserve Drouin recently. We mostly agreed it/they should have headed back north by now. Nice to record it as the surveyors hadn’t ticked one for some time.

The Olive-backed Oriole is principally a fruit-eater but also takes insects from the canopy foliage and bark, particularly of eucalypts.

Other names for the bird include: Green Grackle, Australian Oriole, Green Thrush, Striated Roller and more. Oriolus sagittatus: oriolus = golden (?), and sagittatus = arrow (for the arrow-like streaks) hence another old name – ‘Arrowed Golden Bird’.

Olive-backed Orioles build a cup/basket-shaped nest of bark which they suspend by the rim from a thin fork in the outer foliage.