Very rare in North Carolina, the western US species Bullock's Oriole has only been seen in the state a handful of times since it was resplit from the eastern Baltimore Oriole.

This adult male Bullock's, discovered in early February 2006, frequented a private yard in the woods of Chatham County, NC. The home-owners didn't want a big crowd of birders, so only a few got to see this bird. This photograph was taken 2/16/06.

On this warm day, the Bullock's was actively feeding on the sap flowing from sapsucker wells.

After he finished drinking, the bird flew high up into a pine tree, where he preened for several minutes.

Showing the black tips on the edge of the outer tail feathers, which Baltimore lacks.

The bird was still present on 2/18/06, though the dimness of the day prevented a sharp photo for this hand-held shot (about 80x).

The photos above were taken with a Nikon CoolPix 995 through a Kowa TSN-824 scope. The last two photos here were taken at much closer range with a Nikon CoolPix 8800 attached to an Olympus TCON-17 1.7x teleconverter.

Chatham Co., NC 3/4/06.

Chatham Co., NC 3/4/06.