Mystery Bird: Baltimore Oriole, Icterus galbula

WOW, what a stunning picture!

I think I've had one of these, except the opposite sex, at both my orange and suet feeders for the past two week.

I am guessing it is a first year female due to the scaly, mottled pattern on the back and the hint of yellow coming in above the prominent white wing bar?

This appears to be a bit easier than I thought -- I had thought that the locale was down in the Rio Grande Valley, turns out it's up near Galveston. That narrows the expected choices from 6 to 2, with at least 2 (probably 4) vagrants to keep in mind. Looks like the one I remember watching at Memorial Stadium, based on the mottled dark crown, and the yellow coming in on the lesser wing coverts. And Ken, I think this is an older female -- a male should show more solid black by now, and a young female should show little if any black on the crown or yellow on the coverts.

Sibley shows a 1st-year female Scott's Oriole with a dark greyish head and a long, sharp bill, and Kaufman comments that "older females .. . may have much black on head." Both authors show strong wingbars. Don't know about location.

Murray, interesting thought -- when I was thinking this site was in the Valley, that was one of my possibilities as well. But, it would be out of range (all right, that happens), and from what I can get out of the books, Scott's probably wouldn't show the bright orangey-yellow edges on the back feathers, especially the brand new ones we can see on the middle back. Also, I would expect a female Scott's to be more greenish -- this bird's color is closer to the orange it's eating from.