I saw a flash of orange, and something orange on the clothesline – a Baltimore Oriole!

Most of my spring birds have arrived – the Red breasted grosbeaks, Carolina Wren and Catbirds are all settling in.  Hummingbirds flit around.  I put out orange halves and have tried an oriole feeder, but the orioles never seem to stay.  I’ve occasionally seen them in the neighborhood, but not continuously in the yard.  That’s about to change!

Quick as a bunny, I put out some fresh orange halves and some sour cherry jam – the only kind I have right now.  Not only has the male Oriole arrived, but a female as well!  Great, a pair to try and keep nearby.  The male started in on the orange half right away.    Mostly Orioles like grape jelly, but I just learned that strawberry and even this sour cherry jam will entice them too.  The little glass container was empty in a couple days.  I also found out the Red Bellied Woodpeckers like it…as well as the orange halves.

So what do Orioles like?  Anything orange!  Fruit in general is good, but oranges cut in half and placed where they can land and eat are a favorite.  I never had any luck with an oriole feeder – kind of like a giant hummingbird feeder, with orange sugar water (nectar) but apparently they will use them.  Orioles eat insects  (caterpillars and beetles) as well as berries and spiders and snails – and with the garden and koi pond I can supply those as well.

Orioles habitat is usually wooded (we are) on the edges of the woodland or in open woodland without much underbrush.  They apparently like elms (got those too), according to my research. though they will catch bugs in the air, like swallows. catbirds or phoebe’s (all here too), they also search through foliage of trees and shrubs and the like, looking for little critters.  I’m trying dried meal worms to see if they will accept them from  the feeder too.

Most of us would recognize the hanging, woven pouch they construct for eggs.  I’m going to put out some string and twine, and maybe even some dog hair to invite them to build a nest close by. To me, their cheery songs and calls are more melodic than a robin, and not quite as loud. Listen here: Oriole call and song 

if I am lucky I might find blue-ish or grey-ish eggs with speckles on them in the yard about 2 weeks after they are laid.  Orioles usually lay 4-6 eggs, and the female incubates them about 2 weeks.  Both parents will feed the young, and in only two weeks, sometimes even less, they will leave the nest.

Orioles are not as common as they once were, especially since Dutch Em disease has killed off elm trees in North America.    So if you spot on, run and put out an orange cut in half, and some string for nesting!   You just  may have a bright neighbor for the summer until they head to South America in the fall.