Spot-breasted Oriole

Icterus pectoralis

eBird provides this description of the Spot-breasted Oriole:  Attractive orange-and-black oriole of the Pacific coastal lowlands; local in interior and Caribbean lowlands of northern Central America. Found in tropical woodlands, edges, and semiopen areas with hedges and scattered tall trees. Associates readily with other orioles, such as Streak-backed and Altamira. As with most tropical orioles, sexes look alike: note the rather heavy, slightly decurved bill, black spotting on sides of breast, and mostly black wings with a white wedge on the tertials. Immature has greenish back, little or no spotting on breast, and wing pattern like adult.

Birds of the World gives this introductory information about this beautiful bird:  Spot-breasted Oriole is a Mexican and Central American species that is reasonably well known by North American birders, as a small introduced population has been established for decades in Florida. In its native range, however, this species is restricted to the Pacific Slope. Its preferred habitat is open arid woodlands, often dominated by Mimosa, although it also occupies moister habitats and riparian sites. Spot-breasted Orioles forage in pairs or family groups. They eat a variety of foods, including nectar at flowers and fruit, but in the breeding season need arthropods to feed to the young. The English name is a good one, this is the only oriole that is characterized by having spots on the breast. In some populations, however, the spots are large and coalesce with the black bib. Spot-breasted is found side by side with two similar orioles, Altamira Oriole (Icterus gularis) and Streak-backed Oriole (Isterus pustulatus); given some similarities in plumage you would think that these are closely related. In fact these two are not all that closely related to Spot-breasted, particularly in the case of Streak-backed. One of the unique plumage features of Spot-breasted Oriole is that it shows a large white patch created by broad white edges on the inner secondaries and tertials. It turns out that Spot-breasted Oriole is related to a group in which all show some white in wings, such as the troupials, and White-edged Oriole (Icterus graceannae), the latter of which is the closest relative of Spot-breasted Oriole.

I saw my first Spot-breasted Oriole on the morning of February 5, 2023, on the grounds of Hotel Robledal in Alajuela, Costa Rica.  This beautiful bird was not particularly shy and I was able to get some pretty good photographs.  To see my blog post that includes seeing this bird, look here.