{"id":90404,"date":"2021-06-15T05:53:01","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T11:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=90404"},"modified":"2025-11-08T13:42:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T19:42:48","slug":"western-kingbird-attempting-to-take-over-a-bullocks-oriole-nest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/06\/15\/western-kingbird-attempting-to-take-over-a-bullocks-oriole-nest\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Kingbird Attempting To Take Over A Bullock’s Oriole Nest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WesternWestern Kingbird with down near a Bullock’s Oriole nest \u2013 Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

At times I see some odd things in the field and two days ago that was what appeared to be a Western Kingbird attempting to take over a Bullock’s Oriole nest.<\/p>\n

I had spotted and pointed out a pair of Bullock’s Orioles fly into a Netleaf Hackberry on the side of dirt road in Box Elder County and I hoped to photograph them. Then I found their nest hanging from the branches of the hackberry.<\/p>\n

Before I could locate the Bullock’s Orioles in the hackberry a pair of Western Kingbirds flew into the tree and chattered nosily from the branches. When I focused on one of the kingbirds I noticed that it had down or fur in its bill. I thought at the time that they might be building a nest in the same tree as the Bullock’s Orioles.<\/p>\n

I wasn’t able to take photos of the orioles out in the open but I did get a few of the Western Kingbirds. The images below are just for documentary purposes due to poor lighting conditions and a cluttered setting.<\/p>\n

\"Bullock's<\/p>\n

Bullock’s Oriole nest in a Netleaf Hackberry \u2013 Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

In this photo the light colored Bullock’s Oriole nest can be seen hanging below some of the green leaves of the hackberry and the female is nearly hidden by the leaves to the left of the nest.<\/p>\n

She and her mate flew in several times while I observed and photographed the activity at the nest.<\/p>\n

\"FemaleFemale Bullock’s Oriole entering her nest in a Netleaf Hackberry \u2013 Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/400, ISO 500, EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

In this image the female Bullock’s Oriole can be seen entering the nest. In other photos I took of her entering the nest I could see nesting materials in her bill.<\/p>\n

\"WesternWestern Kingbird with nesting material at a Bullock’s Oriole nest \u2013 Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/400, ISO 500, EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

What was odd is that I also saw and photographed a Western Kingbird, presumably the female since they build the nest in their species, with nesting materials entering the nest of the Bullock’s Oriole a couple of times.<\/p>\n

I looked up nesting behaviors for Western Kingbirds at Cornell’s Birds of the World<\/span><\/a> and found this bit of information:<\/p>\n

Rarely uses abandoned Northern Oriole nests (Kennedy 1915, Quigley 1944, Bergin 1992a).<\/p>\n

If Western Kingbirds rarely nest in Northern Oriole nests they might also nest in Bullock’s Oriole nests. But taking it over from an active pair of breeding Bullock’s Orioles does seem confounding to me.<\/p>\n

I did see the pair of Bullock’s Orioles chase after the Western Kingbirds. When the orioles were away from the nest the kingbird pair came back to it.<\/p>\n

\"WesternWestern Kingbird entering a Bullock’s Oriole nest \u2013 Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/400, ISO 500, EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This last image shows the same Western Kingbird in the photo above entering the nest with the nesting materials she had in her bill.<\/p>\n

It was extremely fascinating to watch the behaviors of both species of bird at this nest. I wish I could have stayed longer to observe and photograph more of their interactions and behaviors but by this time my deer fly bite<\/a><\/span> was starting to swell up and I needed to get ice on it.<\/p>\n

I do wonder… which species will actually lay eggs in this nest.<\/p>\n

In the midst of all the bird activity at this nest I also spotted a Long-tailed Weasel climb the hackberry tree. It looked like it was trying to get to the nest and the male Bullocks Oriole dive bombed it and chased the weasel off. I’d never seen that before either!<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good. Birds and their behaviors are amazing.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Western Kingbird photos plus facts and information about this species. Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Bullock’s Oriole photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At times I see some odd things in the field and two days ago that was what appeared to be a Western Kingbird attempting to take over a Bullock’s Oriole nest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":163214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1148,3778,26,534],"tags":[4004,4226,6706,9874,4098,10467,11895,4070,3780,11897,3791,3772,4075,11896,9873,6743,6744,165,4183,298,4411],"class_list":["post-90404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-bullocks-orioles","category-utah","category-western-kingbirds","tag-adult","tag-behavior","tag-bullocks-oriole","tag-celtis-reticulata","tag-desert","tag-down","tag-entering","tag-female","tag-icterus-bullockii","tag-interactions","tag-kingbird","tag-kingbirds","tag-nest","tag-nest-take-over","tag-netleaf-hackberry","tag-oriole","tag-orioles","tag-spring","tag-tyrannus-verticalis","tag-tyrant-flycatchers-2","tag-western-kingbird"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/western-kingbird-with-downy-feather-mia-mcpherson-4856.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-nw8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":90347,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/06\/14\/the-price-i-paid-for-these-red-tailed-hawk-chick-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":90404,"position":0},"title":"The Price I Paid For These Red-tailed Hawk Chick Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I went up to northern Utah hoping to take photos of some Red-tailed Hawk chicks that I know will soon be leaving their nest and I found them.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Four Red-tailed Hawk chicks in their nest on a desert cliff, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-chicks-in-nest-mia-mcpherson-6379.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-chicks-in-nest-mia-mcpherson-6379.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-chicks-in-nest-mia-mcpherson-6379.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-chicks-in-nest-mia-mcpherson-6379.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":24792,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/05\/28\/a-first-year-male-bullocks-oriole\/","url_meta":{"origin":90404,"position":1},"title":"First year male Bullock’s Oriole","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this week while photographing Western Kingbirds I also had opportunities to photograph a first year male Bullock's Oriole on Antelope Island State Park.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/bullocks-oriole-nest-in-cottonwood-mia-mcpherson-3917.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/bullocks-oriole-nest-in-cottonwood-mia-mcpherson-3917.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/bullocks-oriole-nest-in-cottonwood-mia-mcpherson-3917.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/bullocks-oriole-nest-in-cottonwood-mia-mcpherson-3917.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":104903,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/08\/11\/immature-bullocks-oriole-photos-from-the-mountains\/","url_meta":{"origin":90404,"position":3},"title":"Immature Bullock’s Oriole Photos From The Mountains","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"My last stop yesterday up in the Wasatch Mountains gave me great views and photos of this immature Bullock's Oriole perched in a serviceberry shrub.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Bullock's Oriole biting a serviceberry, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/bullocks-oriole-immature-mountains-mia-mcpherson-3231.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/bullocks-oriole-immature-mountains-mia-mcpherson-3231.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15568,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/08\/06\/western-kingbird-nesting-failure\/","url_meta":{"origin":90404,"position":5},"title":"Western Kingbird nesting failure","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In June I published several posts about a pair of Western Kingbirds nesting on Antelope Island State park but unfortunately that nesting attempt failed.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Perched Western Kingbird, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, 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