Indian Golden Oriole

The Indian golden oriole is very like the Eurasian golden oriole, of which it was formerly treated as a subspecies, but has more yellow in the tail, a paler red eye and bill, and in the male a black eye stripe that extends behind the eye, a large dark patch at the bend of the wing and broad yellow tips to the inner flight feathers. Females are more sharply streaked below. It is also smaller, with a different wing shape. It has been treated as a separate species since 2005, a split later supported by genetic work (Wikipedia, general species account).

It uses a wide range of wooded habitats, from open deciduous and semi-evergreen forest and forest edge to mangroves, open country with scattered trees, parks, gardens, orchards and plantations. Its flight is dipping but strong, reaching about 40km/h, and it sometimes bathes by repeatedly flying into water. It is monotypic. SoIB 2023 lists it as a migrant within India with a large range, finds its current trend stable, and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).