Now that the baby robins are ready to fledge, I thought I would move on to our experience with orioles. Did you know there are 8 types of orioles in North America? It is the Baltimore Orioles we look forward to watching from our reading room out here at the lake. They are a stunning black and orange in color and are a thrill to watch bounce in and out of the feeder all day. Male orioles are brighter in color than females. We feed them the requisite grape jelly from a bowl in a caged feeder. We learned early on that an open container of sweet stuff is fodder for all manner of other critters that scare the birds away, specifically squirrels. As such, we found a caged feeder that few birds can or will fly in and out of leaving it solely for the orioles. They have a unique sound that is more like a whistle that often announces both their arrival and departure from the feeder. Orioles don’t eat birdseed so won’t visit a traditional bird feeder. Baltimore Orioles subsists on fruit, nectar and insects so in addition to jelly you might try feeding them fruit. They have plenty of opportunity to eat insects in our area but you could set out mealworms to attract them to your bird viewing area. Orchardists consider orioles pests as they eat all their fruit thus all the netting you see in parts of the country growing fruit.
The word oriole is based on several Latin words that mean “golden” and they are classified in the blackbird family. There are 8 types of orioles in North America and up to 30 in Central and South American. Baltimore Orioles have a western cousin called the Bullocks/Northern Oriole that traditionally nests in tall trees along streams and rivers. Most orioles fly south for the winter but out east if you keep feeding them they often stick around. The other oriole that is a frequent visitor to our feeder is the Orchard Oriole that is more dusty black and rust in color and smaller than the other types of orioles. It comes earlier and leaves later in the season than other orioles and seems a bit more skittish.
Scott’s Orioles, mostly black and yellow in color, hang out in the arid Southwest or where yucca plants are prevalent. Hooded Orioles live in both the West and Southwest and like palm trees as their habitat. The southern tip of Texas is home to the lesser known Altamira and Audubon’s Oriole who don’t migrate due to the subtropical climate in the south. The Spot Breasted Oriole that was kept as a cage bird in Florida escaped and established large populations in the subtropical region of southeastern Florida and don’t migrate either.
So that’s it for orioles but maybe next week I will talk about several other birds we frequently see at our feeders.