The beautiful and rare endangered Maroon Oriole is a distinctive Taiwanese bird. The Maroon Oriole is a medium-sized (25 cm) bird, the male having a black hood and wings, a deep red body and tail and a yellowish iris. The bill and legs are gray. The female is similarly patterned but is dark gray on the back, and has a light grayish belly with heavy blackish streaks. The differences between the Taiwan and mainland subspecies are not obvious in the field. The Maroon Oriole feeds on wild figs, berries, insects and nectar. It prefers moist deciduous and evergreen forests in hills from 300-1000m. Usually seen singly or in pairs, it keeps to the canopy and sometimes joins mixed-species flocks. Its nest is a large deep cup of woven fibers, placed in the fork of a high branch near the tree top. Both sexes share in parental duties. The male bird is responsible for delivering food and feeding, whereas the female one is in charge of cleaning the nest and disposing the excrements elsewhere. The endangered Maroon Oriole is rarely sighted in wild because it usually acts alone. Its population has been diminished by the cutting of lowland primary and secondary broadleaved forest and is estimated at just a few hundred individuals.