Turpial

Across its range, the turpial favors dry and semiarid environments where trees and shrubs grow in scattered clusters. It is most at home in thorn scrub, cactus scrub, dry woodland, open savanna, plains and the edges of gallery forests. Venezuela holds the largest populations, from the dry Caribbean coast and the islands to the Llanos, and the species also lives in northern and eastern Colombia, where similar dry habitats reach the Caribbean coast and the Orinoco plains. Offshore, it is a familiar bird on Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire, where it is called the trupial, and a small population lives on Trinidad. Farther away, it has been living in Puerto Rico since at least 1810, probably brought there by people from South America, and it now thrives in the dry forests of the southwest, such as Guánica and Cabo Rojo; there are also introduced birds on St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Giant cacti are especially important in its habitat, offering both perches and its favorite food. The turpial avoids dense, closed forest, preferring open landscapes with good visibility.

Few birds in South America are as instantly recognizable as the Venezuelan troupial. It is a fairly large oriole, about 23 to 28 cm long with a long tail and a bulky, pointed bill. Its body is a deep, vivid orange that covers the lower breast, belly, and much of the back, while a bold black hood covers the head and upper breast, ending in a ragged, spiky border. The wings are black with a prominent white stripe that becomes visible in flight. One of its most distinctive features is the patch of bright blue bare skin surrounding each yellow eye, which gives the bird an alert, striking expression. Unlike most orioles, males and females share nearly identical plumage, making them difficult to tell apart in the field. The bill is strong and sharply pointed, well suited to tearing into cactus fruit and pulling insects from bark and foliage. Three subspecies differ slightly in the amount of orange and in size.

The song of the Venezuelan troupial is widely regarded as one of the finest in all of northern South America. It consists of a series of rich, full whistles, typically delivered in repeating phrases from a visible perch high in a tree or on top of a cactus. Each note is clear and resonant, carrying easily across open scrubland and savanna. The bird often sings for long stretches, and neighboring individuals sometimes respond with their own calls, creating a kind of vocal exchange across the landscape. The song plays an important role in territory defense and is a deeply familiar sound in the Venezuelan countryside, so much so that the bird's beauty and voice are a big part of why it was chosen as the national bird. Sadly, the same voice is also why it has long been captured as a cage bird.

Fruit is the heart of the turpial's diet, and in its dry home the most important fruit comes from giant columnar cacti, whose red, juicy fruits ripen through much of the year. The bird perches on top of the cactus and tears the fruit open with its sharp bill. It also eats many other fruits, including mangoes, sapodillas, papayas and wild berries, and in gardens and farms it readily visits fruiting trees. Insects and other small invertebrates, picked from bark, leaves and flowers, add protein, especially when the birds are feeding chicks. It also visits flowers for nectar. By swallowing small fruits and moving between trees, the turpial spreads the seeds of cacti and other dry country plants. Because it likes cultivated fruit, it is common around rural homes and orchards, where its song is part of everyday life.

The turpial is an obligate nest pirate: it never builds a nest of its own. Instead, a pair picks an active nest built by another bird, often the bulky stick nests of thornbirds or the domed nests of kiskadees and other flycatchers, and takes it over by force. The troupials harass the owners until they give up, and they often throw out or eat the eggs or chicks already inside. This is different from brood parasitism, the strategy of cuckoos and cowbirds, which lay their eggs in other birds' nests and leave the work to the hosts: the turpial moves in, lines the stolen nest, lays its own eggs and raises its chicks itself. The breeding season runs from about March to September. The female lays three or four eggs, which hatch after about two weeks, and both parents defend the nest fiercely. Outside the breeding season, turpials usually live in pairs and are territorial, chasing other birds from their favorite trees. Watching a pair of turpials take over a nest is one of the most dramatic sights of the dry country.

In Venezuela and Colombia this bird is the turpial, in English it is the Venezuelan troupial, and on Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire it is the trupial in Papiamento. All the names come from the same root, and the bird was long considered a single species with two close relatives, which are now treated as separate species. The orange backed troupial lives along the rivers of the Amazon basin, and the campo troupial, known as sofrê in Brazil, lives in the dry northeast and center of Brazil and in Paraguay, Bolivia and northern Argentina. All three are large orange and black orioles of the genus Icterus, and all of them steal the nests of other birds. The Venezuelan troupial can be told apart by its black back and the bright blue skin around its eye. In Venezuela the turpial was declared the national bird in 1958, and it appears on the 500 bolívares soberanos banknote. Its name has also been borrowed by Venezuelan businesses, including an airline, Turpial Airlines.

The IUCN currently rates the Venezuelan troupial as Least Concern, reflecting a population that remains widespread and reasonably stable across its range. That said, the species faces ongoing pressure in certain areas. Capture for the cage bird trade is a notable concern, particularly in Venezuela, where the troupial's beauty and song have long made it a target; in Puerto Rico, too, it was often caught for sale until the trade in wild birds was regulated. Keeping wild turpials in cages is illegal in many places and removes them from the wild. Habitat loss driven by agricultural expansion and the clearing of dry scrubland also reduces the availability of suitable territory in some parts of its range. As the national bird of Venezuela, it enjoys a degree of cultural recognition that may support public interest in its protection. Continued monitoring of wild populations and enforcement of regulations around capture and trade will be important for keeping this species secure over the long term.