# Oriolus

Orioles are colourful Old World passerine birds in the genus Oriolus, the type genus of the corvoidean family Oriolidae. They are not closely related to the New World orioles, which are icterids (family Icteridae) that belong to the superfamily Passeroidea.

## Taxonomy and systematics

The genus Oriolus was erected in 1766 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the 12th edition of his Systema Naturae. The type species is, by tautonomy, Oriolus galbula Linnaeus, 1766. This is a junior synonym of Coracias oriolus Linnaeus, 1758, the Eurasian golden oriole. In 1760, French ornithologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in his Ornithologie used Oriolus as a subdivision of the genus Turdus, but the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled in 1955 that "Oriolus Brisson, 1760" should be suppressed. Linnaeus added more than a dozen additional genera when he updated his 10th edition, but he generally based new genera on those that had been introduced by Brisson in his Ornithologie. Oriolus is now the only genus for which Linnaeus's 12th edition is cited as the original publication. The name is derived from the old French word oriol, which is echoic in origin, derived from the call of the bird, but some authors have suggested origins in classical Latin aureolus meaning "golden". Various forms of "oriole" have existed in Romance languages since the 12th and 13th centuries.

### Extant species

szalayi
melanotis
flavocinctus
sagitattus
phaeochromus
bouroensis
forsteni
chlorocephalus
brachyrhynchus
xanthornus
nigripennis
percivali
larvatus
monacha
diffusus
oriolus
kundoo
chinensis (part)
melanisticus
maculatus
auratus
hosii
cruentus
mellianus
trailli
xanthonotus
steerei
albiloris
isabellae :
Relatedness of species within the genus: Two forms that have not been included in the sequencing and analysis are O. crassirostris, which is expected to be close to O. brachyrhynchus, and O. tenuirostris, which is expected to be close to O. diffusus :
The genus contains 32 species:
| Common Name | Scientific name | Distribution |
| Brown oriole | Oriolus szalayi | New Guinea |
| Dusky-brown oriole | Oriolus phaeochromus | North Maluku |
| Grey-collared oriole | Oriolus forsteni | Seram |
| Black-eared oriole | Oriolus bouroensis | Buru Island |
| Tanimbar oriole | Oriolus decipiens | Tanimbar Islands |
| Timor oriole | Oriolus melanotis | Timor, Rote and Semau Islands |
| Wetar oriole | Oriolus finschi | Wetar and Atauro Islands |
| Olive-backed oriole | Oriolus sagittatus | eastern Australia and south-central New Guinea. |
| Green oriole | Oriolus flavocinctus | Australia and New Guinea |
| Dark-throated oriole | Oriolus xanthonotus | Southeast Asia through Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Bangka, Java and southwestern Borneo |
| Ventriloquial oriole | Oriolus consobrinus | Borneo and the Philippines |
| Philippine oriole | Oriolus steerii | the Philippines |
| White-lored oriole | Oriolus albiloris | Luzon Island (the Philippines) |
| Isabela oriole | Oriolus isabellae | Luzon |
| Eurasian golden oriole | Oriolus oriolus | Europe and western Asia, and spends the winter season in central and southern Africa |
| Indian golden oriole | Oriolus kundoo | Indian subcontinent and Central Asia |
| African golden oriole | Oriolus auratus | Africa south of the Sahara desert |
| Slender-billed oriole | Oriolus tenuirostris | eastern Himalayas to Southeast Asia |
| Black-naped oriole | Oriolus chinensis | eastern Siberia, Ussuriland, northeastern China, Korea and northern Vietnam |
| Green-headed oriole | Oriolus chlorocephalus | eastern Africa |
| São Tomé oriole | Oriolus crassirostris | island of São Tomé |
| Western oriole | Oriolus brachyrynchus | African tropical rainforest |
| Ethiopian oriole | Oriolus monacha | north-eastern Africa |
| Mountain oriole | Oriolus percivali | Albertine Rift montane forests, Uganda and Kenya |
| Black-headed oriole | Oriolus larvatus | Africa |
| Black-winged oriole | Oriolus nigripennis | African tropical rainforest |
| Black-hooded oriole | Oriolus xanthornus | tropical southern Asia from India and Sri Lanka east to Indonesia |
| Black oriole | Oriolus hosii | Sarawak in Borneo |
| Black-and-crimson oriole | Oriolus consanguineus | Indonesia and Malaysia |
| Javan oriole | Oriolus cruentus | Indonesia |
| Maroon oriole | Oriolus traillii | Southeast Asia |
| Silver oriole | Oriolus mellianus | southern China and winters in mainland Southeast Asia |

### Former species

Formerly, some authorities also considered these species (or subspecies) as species within the genus Oriolus:
* Green figbird (as Oriolus viridis)
* Brown-eared bulbul (squamiceps) (as Oriolus squamiceps)

## Distribution and habitat

The orioles are a mainly tropical group, although one species, the Eurasian golden oriole, breeds in temperate regions.