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Steve & Dave Maslowski “If you’re offering fruit for birds, you might just attract bonus winged visitors. Some butterflies and moths are attracted to fruit, too!” —Kimberly Kaufman
DID YOU KNOW?
An oriole’s diet varies. Insects are harder to find in spring, so orioles especially seek ripe fruit and berries in that season.
Nothin’ Fancy
Perhaps one of the best things about oranges is the low maintenance. You don’t need a snazzy feeder. Simply hammer a nail to a deck railing or fencepost and stick an orange half to the nail. Or set a couple of orange halves right in your platform feeder. Easy peasy!
Early Bird Gets the Orange
Try to anticipate when orioles will arrive in your backyard. You’ll have the best chance of success if you put oranges out early. If orioles heading north find a good feeding spot, they may just stick around for breeding season and beyond, which means oriole guests for the entire summer.
Keep It Clean
As you can imagine, fresh fruit spoils quickly, especially in the spring and summer sunshine. Make sure to clean your fruit feeders every few days, remove moldy remains and replace with a fresh batch.
More Fruit Options
Don’t stop at oranges. Birds who enjoy a sweet orange treat will often eat other ripe fruit, too. Put out apple halves the same way as oranges. Set an overripe banana, a couple of handfuls of grapes or even chunks of melons on a platform feeder and have fun watching which birds fill up on fruit.
Ideal Oriole Habitat
Plant shrubs, nectar plants and fruit-bearing trees to make your backyard more attractive to orioles. Try crabapple, raspberries, native honeysuckle and trumpet vine.
Birds & Blooms Tip
Orioles tend to steal the show in the backyard because of their bright colors, but other birds like oranges, too. Look for these less showy birds that might stop for a citrusy snack:
- Gray catbirds
- Northern mockingbirds
- Red-bellied woodpeckers
- Western tanagers
- Brown thrashers
- Scarlet tanagers
- Rose-breasted grosbeaks
jmvenegaz says
I have tried this, but I can’t seem to attract any birds w/ it. it also seems to be a waste a fruit when they don’t come. Help?
dukers12 says
try cutting the top off of a plastic cup to make a small cup about an inch deep.drill a small hole in the bottom. put a small nail in something flat outside, fill the cup with grape jelly ( my birds like welch’s 🙂 ) and put on the nail. i go thru alot of jelly but the orioles have nested here the last 2 years. good luck!!!
edsgal says
My brother made a feeder for orioles, with a roof & hole cut to hold the small metal cup of grape jelly – I agree mine like Welch’s grape jelly & go thru a lot! I’ve had 6 (3 couples) of the Orioles at one time. They don’t care for oranges much!
Laura says
I saved a couple plastic caps from a prescription bottle to add jelly or small amounts of fruit. The caps have little holes to hang with string.
Laura says
Oops, sorry. Please delete
Vivian Partridge says
Put jelly out early we get ours up May 1st in Mi Grape jelly not orange marmalade [did not work,nor oranges].
Lori Mince says
I live in Big Spring Texas and i fill my hummingbird feeder and all types of birds,including the Baltimore Oriole comes a running
JUDY says
but when is a good time to put out jelly ?????????
Vivian Partridge says
Judy; as early as April maybe depending on your area We do early May in MI as soon as we our home for summer.
Anna Read says
I find that the birds in New Zealand love fruit-I give them apple cores and they enjoy them very much indeed. I have given them whole apples or ones which have a mushy spot ( I tend to cut these out, but I see birds eating windfalls with soft bits) I always cut a bit of skin off whole apples so that the birds can start them-they completely hollow them out.
michele says
that is such a great tip–about cutting off part of the skin. Thanks.
Jaimie [email protected] says
I read recently certain seeds are bad for birds, especially apple, you heard this?
Anna Read says
If you don’t want them to eat tomatoes and such things, leave bowls of water around. It worked for the old man who told an elderly neighbour years before she told me and it worked for us, too.
michele says
On Saturday I cut an orange in half, put the two halves on feeder (which birds had previously shunned) and a couple were feasting on it within hours! It was a very warm day. Don’t know the type of bird; I’ll try to take a picture. The couple are building a nest close by.
Vivian Partridge says
. we didn’t have any luck with Oranges, but the Orioles went crazy for grape jelly of any brand. Last summer was the 1st year we had good luck & we went thru 4-5 large jars. We are in FL for the winter so as soon as we get back to MI in the spring -around May 1st we put the jelly feeder up Hope we have as much luck this year.
Linda D in Iowa says
I feed the orioles grape jelly, and orange halves, but I also put horse hair out for nesting material. It’s important to use at least 8 inch long strips, so they have enough to work with. If it’s too short they won’t take it. I tried yarn for years but I never saw them use it. Once I started with the horse hair (I put it in a clean suet feeder for easy removal) and placed it close to the jelly. They went crazy for it. Our neighbors and I sat and watched them build a nest in a very tall tree across the street. They seemed to eat some jelly, grab the horse hair and head for the tree. I think maybe the sticky jelly helps hold the hair where they want it, while they start weaving their nest. Just my guess?? The hard part is finding someone who trims their horses tails or manes.
I just cleaned all my birdhouses and found that the family of wrens I had last summer used a lot of the horse hair for their tiny nest. It looked like a miniature bowl of hair. They took up residency in a gourd, so needle nose pliers helped pull out all the small sticks and horse hair.
MB says
Where do you get horsehair?
Linda D in Iowa says
Ask anyone who has horses in the area where you live, or call or go to a riding stable etc. I happen to know a local man who has donkeys and sometimes he trims their tails. I also found a local riding stable that gets their horses ready for summer camp, and they brush the manes and tails to get them cleaned up for summer. Sometimes they are willing to throw the hair in a bag and save it for you.
Dee says
…or give them a 5-gallon bucket with your name and phone # on it. Very convenient for everyone.
Linda D in Iowa says
I also typed in “horse hair” on ebay last night and you can actually buy horse hair on line. They had different colors and lengths to choose from. They had alot! Hope this helps, if you don’t have anyone local.
Good Luck
Linda D from Iowa says
I forgot to mention that I also feed nectar for orioles and hummingbirds. If you have oriole nectar feeders they work for both hummingbirds and orioles. I mix my own nectar, it’s a lot cheaper than buying pre mixed solutions.
RECIPE: one part sugar to four parts water.
You can add food coloring, but I usually don’t. They like it either way. Just make sure you keep it clean by dumping old liquid after a few days. I rinse and shake my feeders with hot water, and refill with fresh liquid. If I make a big batch of nectar, I put the extra in the refrigerator for quick refills. I also place feeders in several different areas because the hummingbirds are very territorial and chase other hummers away, this way they all have a chance to feed.
Janet says
That recipe will kill your humminbirds because it does not have the neutrients needed. Sugar eater is not nectar.
Shauna says
Been feeding my hummingbirds the same way for YEARS…Only mines sweeter 1 part sugar to 3 parts water…It does not kill them!!!
Jeanette says
how do you keep the ants away?
Ann Hewitt says
They sell ant moats to hang above your feeders. Fill them with water.
James Penne says
I’ve got an abundance of birds at my Oriole feeders, but most of them are Purple Finches. For some reason we’ve got an abundance of these birds, they’ve taken over everything except the hummingbird feeder.
I’ve seen a couple of Orioles.
Have to agree with another person, my birds prefer Welch’s grape jelly.
James Penne says
I’ve got orange halves (4) as well as jelly out on feeders. I’m not saying the birds don’t hit the oranges, they do, but these creatures are big time grapeaholics. They hit the jelly and go.
Sandy says
I can’t get rid of squirrels, squirrels, squirrels in Southern Missouri. They hang upside down and right side up and get IN my feeders. My son bought me another feeder, but it’s not the kind of feeder where you can see the birds when they come to eat. We’ve tried the squirrel cone and they just find a way around that. Any suggestions? They have me whipped!
Donna says
In Northeast Pa the squirrels are persistent. I put out mainly safflower seed which they rarely eat. I put out sunflower hearts in only one feeder and sprinkle some on a stepping stone nearby for the squirrels. I also put out mealworms and use suet with hot pepper which they avoid. They’ve figured out how to get some seed out of even the squirrel-resistant feeders eventually. As long as they don’t
destroy my feeders, I sit back and watch their antics.
Dee says
Squirrel stew?