Baltimore Oriole Range Map The Baltimore Oriole breeds from Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia south through Dakotas south to eastern Texas, Louisiana and Virginia. Recently the Baltimore Oriole was combined with the western Bullock's Oriole as a single species, the Northern Oriole. When trees were planted on the Great Plains, the two forms extended their ranges and met. Despite the differences in their appearance, it was found that they interbred, and that most birds in the central plains were hybrids, so the birds were combined into a single species. Now, it seems that in some places the birds are choosing mates of their own type, and they are considered separate species again.

Upon return from their Central American wintering grounds in the spring, male Baltimore Orioles begin establishing territories and singing their familiar, loudly whistled song in open woodlands and forest edges, in isolated clumps of tree, and other open areas, often in suburban settings. Individual males tend to sing a unique song. Competing males may countersing, sometimes imitating each other's calls. Males, which precede the arrival of females by two or three days, display to prospective mates with repeated exaggerated bowing, showing alternately their orange belly and then their black back and orange rump. Once a pair is established, both the male and female defend their relatively small territory. The pair maintains contact through calls and song.

The nest is typically suspended from the end of a branch near the top of a tree. It is a woven sack, as deep as 8 inches, with an opening at the top approximately 3 ½ inches in diameter. Females are the primary architects of the nest, incorporating into the construction the fibers of grapevine, grasses, dogbane, milkweed, and, where available, Spanish moss. When horses were more common, many observers noted the prevalence of long horsehairs in oriole nests. Frequently, birds return to the same territory in subsequent years, though they seldom reuse old nests.

The male Baltimore is the only oriole with a fully black hood and back and orange in the tail. The rump and underparts are orange. Adult males have a single white wingbar and an orange shoulder patch on black wings. Adult female and first-summer male are quite variable, showing two white wingbars, various amounts of orange in the underparts, and black on throat, hood or upperparts. The presence of orange differentiates female Baltimore Orioles from the similar but yellowish Orchard Oriole (I. Spurius).

Like the male, the female Baltimore Oriole resemble female Bullock's Orioles but have more extensive orange or orangish-yellow on the underparts, which fades gradually to the gray of the belly. Bullock's females show an abrupt change from a yellowish throat to the gray belly and have more extensive yellow on the cheeks and a yellowish supercilium contrasting with darker eyeline. Baltimore Orioles have a yellowish wash to rump while the rumps of Bullock's are grayish.

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