Attracting Orioles – More Tips to Attract Orioles

Attracting orioles with an oriole feeder is a great way to add some unique coloring to your yard. Here are a few more tips we've found to get bird to your oriole feeders, including some of orioles favorite foods and roosting places.

Colorful Orioles – Attracting Them to Your Yard
By Thomas Hays

Orioles are fast becoming one of the favorite backyard birds in the United States. These colorful birds with their brilliant yellow, orange and black plumage are capturing the imagination of backyard birders throughout the country. Orioles, in their various forms occur throughout the lower 48 states. The Baltimore Oriole and Orchard Oriole are found in the eastern states, the Bullock's Oriole in the west, the Altamira Oriole, Audubon's Oriole and Hooded Oriole in south Texas and the Hooded Oriole, Scott's Oriole and Bullock's Oriole are found throughout the southwest. These birds are easily observed due to their bright plumage and slightly larger size. Most are slightly smaller than the American Robin. All are easy to attract to your backyard if you provide the proper food, water and shelter to make them feel comfortable. All are berry and insect eaters by nature and most prefer areas of deciduous streamside habitat to live and nest in although, recently, more are being found in urban and suburban areas with large deciduous trees such as parks, cemeteries and yards.

Food is the easiest way to attract orioles and we have settled on three foodstuffs which are literally oriole magnets. The food most sought after by orioles at our feeders is grape jelly. We have tried grape preserves and jams, other flavors of jelly and even fruit flavored baby food, but simple smooth grape jelly wins out every time. We have a steady stream of Scott's, Hooded and Bullock's Orioles at our jelly feeders all summer long. To economize on the cost of providing this jelly we buy ours at a local dollar store where we can pick up a good sized jar of jelly for a dollar. We always take as many as we can carry with us.

Hummingbird nectar is also a huge oriole magnet. A simple mix of four parts water to one part table sugar will have both hummingbirds and orioles scrambling to your yard. Because the orioles have larger beaks than the hummingbirds, we have modified several of the feeding ports on our hummingbird feeders so that our orioles are able to drink from them. We also have several specialized oriole feeders set up which allow for providing the jelly, nectar and the third oriole magnet, a half an orange. If there are orioles around and you put out any or all of these foods, they will find you. An example would be our own yard. We live in Chihuahuan Desert scrub brush type habitat with not a single tree in sight. The nearest "oriole habitat" is approximately three miles away to the west. Yet, as stated earlier, we have a steady stream of orioles coming to our feeders all summer long. They obviously know where we are and do not seem to mind traveling this distance to obtain their favorite treats.

Another food known to attract orioles is live mealworms and these may be put out in a slippery dish on a platform feeder or may be placed in one of the jelly ports on a specialized oriole feeder. There are also commercially made mealworm feeders on the market. The mealworms will attract, not only orioles, but other non seedeating birds which may not come to a bird feeder otherwise. These birds include bluebirds, flycatchers, vireos, warblers, wrens and more.

The color orange seems to attract orioles. Even the yellow and black Audubon's Oriole and Scott's Oriole seem to be attracted to orange. Nearly all commercial specialty oriole bird feeders are colored orange with the intent to attract these birds.

Water is another factor in attracting these birds and they do love moving water. This can be provided by a bird bath or, more elaborately, by a small backyard bird pond. The addition of a mister or dripper will add to the moving water effect and draw, not only orioles, but many other birds that normally would not come into the seed type wild bird feeders.

Providing the orioles with their preferred habitat is the hardest single item to provide. If you live in or near the woods or in an established area with large deciduous trees you have a head start. Otherwise, you can support your local orioles by planting trees which will eventually provide nesting sites such as cottonwoods, oaks, Green Ash and others. Berry producing shrubs such as cherries, mulberries, serviceberries, elderberries, raspberries, Pyracantha, blackberries, wild plums and chokecherries will provide food for nestling orioles and other birds. We also provide a commercial nesting material in the form of short cotton and yarn ends which we place in a suet bird feeder. The birds come in and pull the material out of the feeder to line their nests. We have found oriole nests as far as four miles away from our yard with nesting material the parent birds obtained from our yard.

These birds migrate into the United States from late February in the southwest until mid May in the rest of the country. They remain with us until early September in the north and until mid October in the south. They are not hard to attract to your yard and seeing an oriole in the yard in the morning is a great way to start your day.

After 35 years as a professional ornithologist and bird bander Thomas Hays now assists others in developing bird and wildlife friendly habitats in their own back yards. Visit me at http://tomsbirdfeeders.com/ to see how I can help you formulate a backyard habitat for the birds in your area. Visit our website for more helpful hints on attracting birds and wildlife to your property.

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