Black-hooded Oriole

The black-hooded oriole is a striking oriole. The male is mainly bright yellow with a solid black hood and black in the wings and the centre of the tail. The female is drabber with greenish underparts but still has the black hood, and young birds are like females with dark streaks below and an incomplete hood. The black head separates it at once from the Indian golden oriole. Its flight is thrush-like, strong and direct with shallow dips over longer distances (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a bird of open woodland and cultivation that spends much of its time in the tree canopy, where even the bright male can be hard to see among dappled leaves. It eats insects and fruit, especially figs, gleaning from foliage and bark or sallying after prey. It builds its nest in a tree and lays two eggs. SoIB 2023 lists it as resident in India with local movements and a large range, finds its trends stable, and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).