Readers share their best bird pictures of orioles, including Baltimore orioles, orchard orioles, Bullock's orioles, hooded orioles and more.
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Orange in a Tree
“I always sit on my back porch and watch the birds come into my feeders. One day in June, I saw this Baltimore oriole. A friend said if you put an orange in the tree they will keep coming in, and this is the photo I captured,” says Birds & Blooms reader Samuel Plyler.
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Springtime With Orioles
“In my yard, I have planted many ornamental crabapple trees. They provide fruit for many birds, and in the spring the orioles like to search for insects among the flowers. The vibrant blossoms also provide a nice setting to photograph a variety of birds like the oriole I captured here with my Nikon SLR and Tamron lens,” says reader Lamont Kraft.
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Dad on Duty
“This spring we had a Baltimore oriole couple build a nest just 20 feet off our deck. It was a joy to observe them interact, protect their clutch and communicate to one another through their singsong calls as to when it was safe for each other to approach and leave the nest. Here, the male has just fed his brood and is off to find more food and signal for his mate to return,” says reader Patty Keuck.
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Hooded Orioles
“It was a 2-in-1 good luck shot when I captured this pair of male and female hooded orioles in their wintering range of Mexico while I was vacationing in Cancun. Only nature itself could offer such beautiful color. I took the photo in March with my Canon EOS Rebel T5i camera,” says reader Alan Hailston.
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Oriole in a Fountain
“We have three-tiered fountain that we turn on in the afternoons. It attracts the birds and this oriole visits daily for his bath! We call him Scruffy. One day I had my camera in my hand and was able to photograph him bathing. I used a Canon EOS Rebel T5i,” says reader Linda Mccann.
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Orchard Oriole Pictures
“We rarely see orchard orioles in our backyard, but we can always see them throughout the month of April at our local lake in northeast Texas. They are one of my favorite spring birds. This picture was taken using a Canon 80D and a Sigma 600mm lens,” says reader Michael Demoss.
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Oriole on a Suet Feeder
“This photo of a Baltimore oriole on my suet feeder was taken in the spring with a Canon PowerShot SX520HS camera. They are so colorful, and it is a special moment to see one,” says reader Violet Skrzypek.
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Precious Oriole Memory
“One of the last photographs that my daughter took before she passed away suddenly a couple of years ago was of a Baltimore oriole. Folks at the Game & Fish Commission laughed at her when she asked about this bird in her area. She laughed back and sent them a photograph that she had taken in her front yard. It was the first time in 37 years that Baltimore orioles were in her county. This spring, this one landed in my yard, and it was and it was like she was guiding me to carry on her improbable task of luring and feeding this beautiful bird. It gave me my daughter back, if for just a moment. I have also begun to teach her eldest son to continue her passion for photographing birds,” says reader Benny Battles.
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Feeding Time
“Our neighbors have several large palm trees that have hosted hooded oriole nests each year. I have feeders out for the orioles, and they are frequent visitors to my yard, but they tend to be very skittish. In this case I noticed the juvenile sitting on the tall verbena in my yard. I snuck my lens out through our sliding glass door and began photographing them when an adult male flew in with an insect for the juvenile. They should be leaving my area fairly soon, so I was very excited to capture this picture of the oriole birds,” says reader Alan Glazier.
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Lakeside Living
‘This is a female Baltimore oriole sitting on her nest. What is interesting about this nest is that she used materials that she found on our lake in Illinois. Her nest hung directly over the water, which gave us fits because we worried that the babies would fledge and end up in the lake! Of course, they survived and soon were and still are regular visitors to our jelly feeders. The photo was taken with a Canon EOS-1D X Mark II,” says reader Mary Roseberry.
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First Baltimore Oriole Sighting
This Baltimore oriole is the first one I ever saw here in my yard. Since I’m retired now, I get to see all the newcomers. A male oriole was looking in the window at me as if to say something to me. I went out and checked the grape jelly I put out for them and it was empty. I refilled it and he came back to feed. This was taken in the spring. I used a Canon T6 camera with a Sigma 100-400mm lens,” says reader Stanley Yoder.
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Pretty in Pink
“Totally off the cuff! I was cooking on the deck and saw him, ran and got the camera and shot! Totally blind luck!” says reader Lynn Ann Vukonich.
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Bullock’s Oriole
“I love orioles and they love my red hot poker plants. This male Bullock’s oriole was feeding on pokers in my backyard in Colorado. The plants have large sturdy stems strong enough to support the bird’s weight. I’ve seen as many as four orioles feeding simultaneously on my poker patch. Hopefully more people will plant this spectacular flower for this beautiful bird,” says reader Marina Schultz.
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Food Fight
“Working from home during the pandemic allowed me time to enjoy some bird-watching from my kitchen window. These orioles were trying to dominate the grape jelly and oranges that I had put out,” says reader Jamie Andres.
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Oriole Surprise
“I was at a favorite place waiting for some warblers to reveal themselves, when all of a sudden this orchard oriole flew to a tree right by me. What a treat. I do not see these very often. And to get a beautiful shot of it on this branch, I feel blessed,” says William Friggle.
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First Female of Spring
“It was springtime here in Michigan. The male Baltimore orioles had already arrived, was just waiting for the pretty females to arrive. She landed in my beautiful crabapple tree and I captured this shot,” says reader Rebecca Granger.
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Spring Migration Stars
“I look forward to the Baltimore orioles arriving each spring. I was fortunate enough to capture this colorful male taking a rest in a rhododendron bush outside my window in Pennsylvania,” says reader Ashley Shuster.
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Ready to Fly
“While checking out bottlebrush trees for mitigating songbirds on Galveston Island, Texas, I came upon this male orchard oriole feeding on nectar and insects. I was excited to photograph this beautiful oriole in peak breeding colors before it continued its journey north to nest. Finding the oriole posing and perched out in the open was a special treat and the head turn was the icing on the cake! I always wonder where these little songbirds that migrate through the Gulf Coast states are heading and I wish I could tell them to have a safe journey,” says reader Kevan Sunderland.
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Female Bullock’s Oriole Pictures
“I took this photo at a friend’s house in Wyoming. The Bullock’s orioles were after the oranges he had out for them. This female was framed so beautifully among the pine tree I just had to capture it! I have orioles at my feeders as well, but it is always a treat to see them in a different setting. They are so comical as well as colorful. I took this with my Canon Power Shot G3x,” says reader Susan E Storey.
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Altamira Oriole Bird Pictures
“This Altamira oriole was photographed on my first trip to south Texas, at Estero Llano Grade State Park in Weslaco using a Sony A7r4 camera with a brand new 600 mm lens. All of the birds in the oriole family are very exciting to see but this Altamira was the perfect little ball of sunshine with an exclamation mark over the fuchsia flowers in the winter!” says reader Nick Digennaro.
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Sign of Spring
“This Baltimore oriole was an early May visitor and a truly welcome sign of spring in Wisconsin. I was ready with feeders offering oranges and grape jelly. As I was photographing him he seemed to be scouting my yard for nesting sites by checking out every tree, visiting the feeders and bird bath several time each. I’m happy to say we passed inspection and have been enjoying him and his family all summer!” says reader Ken Kolafa.
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Juvenile Hooded Oriole
“For the past few years, I’ve enjoyed the hooded orioles visiting our yard and drinking from our hummingbird feeders. I’ve wanted to take pictures with flowers around them and this year I thought of putting a hummingbird feeder by our flowering crepe myrtle tree. Within a couple days, a male and two juveniles came and chased each other around between the feeder and the tree. This juvenile was being chased by its sibling and landed on a flowering branch for just two seconds while I got this photo. My favorite bird and my favorite tree in one shot!” says reader Della Alcorn.
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Oriole on a Magnolia
“Every year the orioles come to our house around the second week of May. They love to hang around and eat the jelly and oranges, but they also love our magnolia bush. This female oriole was hanging on one of the branches while the pink flowers were budding and blossoming,” says reader Tom Thaden.
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Oriole Family Bath Time
“I spent the morning watching this family of Baltimore orioles while visiting our kids in Michigan,” says reader Gena Miles.
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Upside Down Orchard Oriole
“This female orchard oriole was going back and forth in between the waterfall and this Grevillea robusta in my Florida backyard. I found it funny she always kept her back to me,” says reader Joe Colontonio.
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Baltimore Oriole in the Garden
“I was blessed this year to have Baltimore orioles spend most of spring in our Kentucky backyard. The coral honeysuckle vine made a great backdrop for the vibrant colors of this male. I am hoping they return again next spring. The photo was taken with a Nikon D500 camera with a 300 mm F4 Prime lens,” says reader Lashawna Finney.
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King of the Yard
“I took pictures of oriole birds through the living room window at our apartment on a 100-year-old ranch with my Canon EOS Rebel and a 75-300mm lens. This hooded oriole and his mate were nesting in a Spanish palm tree right outside the window, so we saw them all the time. They were the king and queen of the yard. Since then, we’ve put up seed, suet and hummingbird feeders and we now have a backyard bird sanctuary, as we like to call it,” says reader Neil Farrell.
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Quick Flash of Orange
“I took this shot of a beautiful Baltimore oriole at a river close to my home where I like to sit and watch the wildlife. The Baltimore oriole is one of my favorite birds. I love the bright orange colors that are easy to spot but you better be ready to take that shot because they don’t stay around long! I used my Sony Cybershot, 50 x zoom,” says reader Kathy Mcdorman.
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Oriole Bird Pictures by the Window
“I spotted an adult male Bullock’s oriole sitting on a tree branch in my backyard outside my window. Every summer I provide grape jelly and sugar water for the orioles. My plums ripen in late July, and the orioles feed on them in this same area of my yard right by window,” says reader Mary Long.
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Baby Orioles in the Nest
“A friend notified me of a Baltimore oriole nest, so I rushed to the location. Never did I expect to find such a great view of the family. The adults made several trips to feed the babies. In this image, taken with a Nikon D850 camera and Tamron 150-600 mm lens, I captured the young ones fighting for food. They fledged later that day,” says reader David Woten.
