Date: 05/21/2019

Number: 1

One Oriole Heard in Rock Creek Park Kensington MD and in backyard in Rockville, MD. Oriole is heard only a few times a year over the past several years: early spring to announce arrival, midsummer, and late summer to sing farewell. I am not sure this is the same bird or one of its offspring. As tree-top nesting birds, Orioles are extremely vulnerable to nest raiding and mobbing by hawks and crows. Crows seem to take many more migrating songbirds than hawks or cats, because there are millions of crows along flyways. In the Rockville area, it takes about 1/2 hour for the crows to pass by, because there are so many. Reducing the crow population would significantly increase the population of valuable migrating songbirds. Crows also spread diseases like West Nile and salmonella; and crow droppings can ruin the paint on cars, and cost car owners lots of money to wash their cars, when crows roost in neighborhoods. Crows also make streets and property unsanitary. Yet, I have never heard crows mentioned as a great threat to migratory birds.

Rockville, MD

Latitude: 39.1 Longitude: -77.1

Observed by: Marlene
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