Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
When one thinks of the color orange, the citrus fruit which bears the name probably comes to mind. But certainly the orioles in the bird arena come in a close second. Even the team colors of the ball club from Baltimore reflect their vibrant colors. But should I feel compelled to break out into poetic verse on the subject, I might find myself somewhat limited. This would be particularly true should I debase myself to the level of a limerick since no word in the English language rhymes with “orange.”
As bold and decisive as the Bullock’s and Baltimore Orioles are, it wasn’t that long ago the biologists felt compelled to combine them into one species since there was a good deal of interbreeding where the Western and Eastern species’ range overlapped. Since that time, this has been reversed and the two are still recognized as distinct, deserving their own name.
Let’s give some credit to those biologists who wanted to make sure things were right and proper. But did their alterations change the nesting habits of those birds? Perhaps they changed their migratory habits to coincide with their new classification? The truth is, mankind did it for their own sense of propriety. We might do well to remember what John Muir had to say about this years ago: “It is a great comfort…that vast multitudes of creatures, great and small and infinite in number, lived and had a good time in God’s love before man was created.”