African golden oriole
species of bird
The African golden oriole (Oriolus auratus), or African oriole, is a member of the oriole family of passerine birds which is a resident breeder in Africa south of the Sahara desert.
It is a bird of thick bush and other well-wooded areas. The hanging basket-shaped nest is built in a tree, and contains two eggs. The food is insects and fruit, especially figs, found in the tree canopies where the orioles spend much of their time.
Taxonomy and systematics
The name "oriole" was first recorded (in the Latin form oriolus) by Albertus Magnus in about 1250, and was stated to be onomatopoeic, from the song of the golden oriole.
The New World orioles are similar in appearance to the Oriolidae, but are icterids unrelated to the Old World birds.
Subspecies
Two subspecies are recognized:
Senegal golden oriole (O. a. auratus) - Vieillot, 1817: Found from Senegal and Gambia to western Ethiopia and southern Somalia
South African golden oriole (O. a. notatus) - Peters, W, 1868: Originally described as a separate species. Found from Angola to central Mozambique
Description
The male is striking in the typical oriole black and yellow plumage, although the plumage is predominantly yellow, with solid black only in the flight feathers and tail centre.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “African golden oriole” as species of bird. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of bird. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q923010. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1250, 1817 and 1868.
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This entry incorporates text from “African golden oriole” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.