On 16 December 2019 I encountered this (juvenile) Oriole / Pirol (Oriolus sp.) with Martin Suanjak on Qeshm island, Iran. The bird was in short-term company of six Dark-throated Thrushes / Schwarzkehldrosseln (Turdus atrogularis). We didn’t expect this species to winter this far north!
We wondered, how an Indian Golden Oriole (Oriolus kundoo) could be ruled out. The scarce literature on this didn’t give any conclusive hints.
Edit 15th March 2024: I just saw that the Iran Bird Records Committee now lists this observation as the first record of Black-naped Oriole / Schwarznackenpirol (Oriolus chinensis) for Iran on their website. I had send them the photos for ID help. What a surprise – this makes this bird the second „first“ for Iran that I found, following Ashy Drongo 🙂
