Fun Montezuma Oropendola Facts For Kids

The Montezuma oropendola (Psarocolius montezuma) is a beautiful tropical icterid bird, known for its bright yellow feathers, unique loud call, and elaborate dance display. Many people living around their habitat are used to seeing these birds as there are still many of them living in the wild.

They are found along the coastal lowlands of southeastern Mexico and all the way until central Panama.

The Montezuma oropendola call and dance are often recorded on a video camera, and many documentaries show this astounding display on branches. If you would like to learn more about this brilliant bird, read the rest of this article!

If you are a budding bird enthusiast, take a peek at our facts about other species of birds like the hyacinth macaw and the toco toucan.  

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Montezuma Oropendola Interesting Facts

What type of animal is a Montezuma oropendola?

They are in the Icteridae family, also known as tropical New World blackbirds. New World birds are small to medium-sized and are often mostly black but have bursts of colorful feathers.

What class of animal does a Montezuma oropendola belong to?

The Montezuma oropendola (Psarocolius montezuma) is a bird of genus Psarocolius.

How many Montezuma oropendolas are there in the world?

There is no information on how many of these birds there are in the world. It is estimated that the number of mature individuals could be between 500,000-4,999,999.

Where does a Montezuma oropendola live?

They are found along the coastal lowlands of the Caribbean from southeastern Mexico all the way until central Panama. However, they are not found in El Salvador and Guatemala, which are between this strip. These bird species are also found on the Pacific slope of Honduras, Nicaragua, and the northwestern and southwestern parts of Costa Rica.

What is a Montezuma oropendola's habitat?

Their natural habitat is tropical lowlands. You can find these birds in forests and coastal lowlands from southeastern Mexico to central Panama. They prefer to live on the edge of the forest, plantations, open woodlands, and areas with trees.

They prefer to live near water. They are not migratory birds, so they tend to stay within range of their habitat. They do tend to be more mobile outside of breeding season.

Who do Montezuma oropendolas live with?

These birds live in a group among other birds of the same species called a colony. Each colony is led by a dominant male, who mates with most of the females within the colony.

Within the nesting colony, each female builds a Montezuma oropendola nest to lay her eggs. The average nesting colony size includes 30 nests. However, scientists have recorded a colony including up to 172 nests.

How long does a Montezuma oropendola live?

These species are said to live to around six years old.

How do they reproduce?

The Montezuma oropendola reproduces sexually with their mates. They lay eggs that they incubate in nests built in tall trees in the forest canopy, among other hanging nests. The female will normally produce two eggs each mating season.

These eggs are dark-spotted white or buff eggs that normally take 15 days to hatch. After these 15 days, the eggs hatch to produce chicks. Fledging occurs 30 days after hatching.

These birds are colonial breeders, meaning they breed in groups of colonies.

Even though a female lays two eggs, normally only one survives and fledges. In fact, only one-third of nests in colonies are said to produce young Montezuma oropendolas successfully.

What is their conservation status?

The Montezuma oropendola (Psarocolius montezuma) has a conservation status of Least Concern. This means that they are not at risk of becoming extinct.  

Montezuma Oropendola Fun Facts

What do Montezuma oropendolas look like?

Adult males are mostly chestnut but have a black rump and tail. Their tail is mostly bright yellow, except for two dark-colored central feathers. They have a long and sharp black bill with a red tip. Their head is a dark color with blue patches.

They have a pink wattle, which is a piece of flesh that hangs from the head. Females look similar but are smaller and also have a smaller wattle. Young birds also look similar, but their colors are not so vibrant.

How cute are they?

They are adorable, more so with their beautiful vibrant feathers.

How do they communicate?

The Montezuma oropendola makes very unique calls. Some researchers have described these calls or vocalizations as 'unforgettable.' Both sexes make cackling calls. Males are known to make bubbling, gurgling, and tic-tac sounds.

They may also accompany their calls with an elaborate bowing display which even includes somersaults around branches and trees in the forest. They do this to impress a female and, hopefully, mate with them. Males can also be aggressive to other males to assert their dominance.

How big is a Montezuma oropendola?

A male is 19.6 in (50 cm) in length, and females range up to 14.9 in (38 cm) length. This species is larger than other species of oropendola. The chestnut-headed oropendola is much smaller and also not as colorful.

How fast can a Montezuma oropendola fly?

A Montezuma oropendola may not be super fast, but it can definitely fly efficiently. Their flight path is very direct, but their wingbeats move with slow, rowing beats of their wings.

How much does a Montezuma oropendola weigh?

Males weigh up to 18.3 oz (519 g), and females weigh up to 8.11 oz (230 g).

What are the male and female names of the species?

Both male and female sexes are called a Montezuma oropoendola (Psarocolius montezuma) and do not have a specific name.

What would you call a baby Montezuma oropendola?

A baby is called a chick, just like other baby birds.

What do they eat?

Montezuma oropendolas find most of their food by foraging in trees. Their diet is mostly fruit and sometimes insects. They are also known to eat flowers from open grasslands every once in a while. They like to feast during the day and rest at night.

Females often forage on thin branches, feasting on tiny insects, whilst the males tend to forest on bigger branches and eat bigger insects.

Are they poisonous?

No! These birds are not poisonous.

Would they make a good pet?

We do not recommend keeping these birds as pets. Whilst they are gorgeous, they need to fly around the forests, their natural habitat. They also need a climate typical of tropical lowlands from southeastern Mexico to central Panama, Costa Rica, the Pacific slope, Central America, and Guatemala.

Oropendolas are tropical wild birds and also typically live high up in the canopy in their hanging nests. It would definitely be impractical to keep one at home!

Did you know...

Their nests look like hanging woven sacks and are made from fibers and vines. These nests are usually 24-71 in (61-180 cm) tall, so these birds need tall trees for them to hang their nests on.

Nesting trees are tall to protect them from any predators coming near.

They like to make their hanging nest near a hornet's nest to prevent other birds from trespassing. In turn, these birds protect the hornet's nest from bees.

It takes females 9-11 days to build the nest.

Males are 100% bigger than females.

Juvenile birds reach sexual maturity in just a few weeks. They do not start to reproduce, however, until they turn one year old.

While female nests, males fight each other. The males are then ranked based on who won the fight. The Alpha male will push other males out until they are the last one standing.

Predators of these birds include snakes, toucans, monkeys, and botfly larvae. Oropendolas especially like to prey on chicks or juveniles of small birds like the blue grosbeak.

When a group of males sings, the largest male is usually the loudest and can sing deeper than the others.

Are Montezuma oropendolas endangered?

No, these birds are not endangered. In fact, this bird only occurs in its range of Central America, lowlands from southeastern Mexico to Central Panama, Costa Rica, and Guatemala.

How did the Montezuma oropendola get its name?

Whilst the family of the bird is oropendola, Montezuma has an interesting origin. The Montezuma oropendola (Psarocolius montezuma) bird is named after an Aztec emperor, emperor Moctezuma the second, also spelled Montezuma. These birds are found in areas where the Aztecs and this emperor would have lived.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! Learn more about some other birds from our ovenbird facts and eastern kingbird facts pages.

You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring in one of our free printable Montezuma oropendola coloring pages.