A male Hooded Oriole is a favorite oriole for birders in the Southwest.
Two fledgling Orchard Orioles visit a Heath Clementine feeder for grape jelly and sliced oranges.
A Baltimore Oriole at a feeding platform.
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Baltimore Orioles are among the most beautiful birds in North America, and it’s a thrill to see them out your window. In the West, Bullock’s Orioles are just as attractive, as are Hooded Orioles, Orchard Orioles, and Scott’s Orioles, and they can all be attracted to your feeding station, if they range in your locality during the spring and summer seasons. If one or more of the orioles migrate through your area, or nests nearby, you can simply provide sliced oranges, an oriole nectar feeder, or best of all, a container of grape jelly – and by being diligent, you may be able to keep orioles in your yard from May through September.
Whether you attract orioles for a few days or a couple weeks during migration, or if you can keep them interested in your feeding station throughout the nesting season and into fall migration, it’s pretty easy to provide a simple menu to attract them – a couple orange halves will sometimes do the trick, especially if you add their favored grape jelly to the mix. Or you can go all in by adding an oriole feeder that provides ports for sliced oranges, sugar-water nectar, and grape jelly. It’s that simple, but we will share some added insights that beginners and avid oriole fans alike will appreciate.
Sliced Oranges
Orioles are attracted to the color orange, so that can be an initial attractant in itself, and you can provide the color and a favorite food simultaneously by offering sliced oranges to attract orioles. You can simply slice an orange in half and set it in a good location where you can watch for any oriole action. If the orange halves attract an oriole or two, expand your menu to include grape jelly and nectar.
Nectar Feeders
Many birders choose to attract orioles with the orange color of their nectar feeder, which provides a vehicle for sugar-water nectar that orioles relish. There are a variety of styles and sizes of oriole feeders, so it’s well worth doing a little shopping at local bird specialty stores. Oriole feeders provide larger perches than hummingbird nectar feeders, as well as larger feeding ports.
Orioles feed on flower nectar; not to the degree of hummingbirds, but the attraction and the sugar-water mixture used for hummingbirds is the same for orioles (1 part sugar, 4 parts water), because what you are doing is trying to mimic the sugar content what flower nectar provides. There are also pre-mixed sugar-water nectars that make filling feeders a bit more convenient for some birders, but even these often need to be diluted with water as per the directions on the bottle.
Grape Jelly
Initially, many people are surprised to hear that one of the best ways to attract and keep orioles in your yard is to provide a continuous supply of grape jelly. Jelly provides another “sugar high” for orioles and an important addition to nutrients (insects and caterpillers) that adults feed to nestlings. Although orange slices usually attract orioles initially, it seems their interest in oranges wanes; but if you provide grape jelly, they never tire of this food.
Many oriole feeders provide small cups you can fill with jelly, or you may find it easiest to install a small bowl into your feeding station that you can keep stocked with jelly. Some birders even recycle orange halves that orioles have cleaned of orange fruit by filling the empty orange peel with jelly. Although you can experiment by offering other flavors of jelly, grape is the unanimous favorite among orioles, so why change – would you be changing for the orioles, or for your own tastes? Today, you can even buy grape jelly in handy squeeze bottles that make filling jelly containers a no-mess process.
A few insects will probably also be attracted to the jelly, and the nectar and oranges too, but you will find that the orioles eat the insects first when they arrive at your feeder, then dive into the jelly, nectar, and oranges. Hanging oriole feeders reduce the insects that come to the feeder; some have an “ant moat” attached to the feeder to inhibit crawling insects, or you can buy an ant moat, if needed.
The Ultimate Payoff
It’s great fun to have orioles add to the color and action of your feeding station, and you may find the orioles become your favorite feeder visitors. If the oriole section of your feeding station is really working on an advanced level, the adult orioles will bring their fledglings to your feeding station, adding so much to your enjoyment and understanding to the nesting cycle of orioles – what fun!
Water Too
Your bird bath or water feature may provide an attraction for orioles too, but it seems orioles are not big birdbath fans, which can be a surprise to backyard birders. Nonetheless, a water feature is the easiest, cheapest way of attracting any songbirds to your yard and feeding station, and water may be the best element you can share to help birds, including orioles, during migration and through the seasons.
Landscaping for Feeding and Nesting
Orioles will also utilize your landscaping for feeding, shelter, and nesting sites. Initially, a flowering bush or fruit tree may attract them – certainly flowering apple, cherry, and wild plum trees are great spring options for orioles to feed on the flower nectar, plus caterpillars, insects, and spiders. Orioles are famous for building hanging nests from tall mature trees, but in the Southwest, Hooded Orioles prefer to nest amid the fronds of palm trees, and Scott’s Orioles often utilize large yuccas as nest sites.
Splendid Songs
Did we mention the beauty of the songs of orioles? The only thing to match or surpass the beauty of orioles is their unforgettable songs, which will catch your attention and improve your mood with each string of notes. As for the downsides of orioles, the only one that comes to mind is that orioles leave northern climes during the late days of summer. What a wonderful addition orioles provide to your window view, for some fleeting moments, or for the entire nesting season and through fall migration. Ah yes, the orioles!
There are a number of companies that offer a variety of oriole feeders; please be sure to check some out at:
- Nature Products USA at https://www.natureproductsusa.com/oriole-feeders
- Perky-Pet at https://www.perkypet.com/store/bird-feeders/oriole-feeders
- BestNest at https://www.bestnest.com/bestnest/oriole_bird_feeders.asp
- Duncraft at https://www.duncraft.com/Oriole-and-Jelly-Bird-Feeders?view_all
- Songbird Essentials at https://www.songbirdessentials.com/store.php?cat=1015&title=Oriole%20Products
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