Educate Yourself About the Baltimore Oriole and Other Orioles
Baltimore Oriole
The Baltimore Oriole has a solid black head, smaller, slimmer body than a robin, and larger than a redstart, flame orange underside, orange corners on the tail, wings mostly black with orange patch, and white wingbar. Its length is 7-8in (18-20cm)
Its wingspan is 11in (29cm) Its voice is a song that consists of rich, piping whistled notes. Note is low, that’s whistled “hew-li”. Their eggs are usually white, pale blue, streaked and blotched brown and black, at the larger end. They have 1 clutch of 4-5 or 3-6 eggs; the female incubates for 12-14 days and fledging time is about 12-14 days. Both male and female feed their young. The females are greenish garb, with a hint of yellow or pale orange
Orioles are not especially shy of people, they will take up resident in your beautiful bird feeding garden, as long as it has a large shady tree in it. Orioles spend most of their time in treetops, so they are hard to see sometimes, unlike their relatives, the blackbirds, which spend most of their time on the ground. You can find the Baltimore Oriole throughout the eastern and prairie states, and Bullock’s Orioles witch are a similar species, in the western states.
Baltimore and Bullock’s Orioles interbreed where their ranges overlapped, and they used to be considered one species called the Northern Oriole. The females are similar, but lack the black hood and back, and she builds the nests that are made out of plant fiber, stripes of grapevine bark, yarn and strings, lined with fine grass, plant down, and hair.
Sometimes even the male helps with the construction of the nest, that are typically positioned at the end of a branch, “witch is bag-shaped”, probably to protect and provide security, from climbing animals like raccoons. The Baltimore Orioles are master builders, and their nests last for years, even though the Baltimore will never reuse them.
If you like to attract the Baltimore and other orioles, plant shrubs that bear fruits, like blueberries, blackberries, serviceberries, and elderberries. Hang up oriole feeders, and fill them with sugar water, and in the spring, provide 6in (15cm) lengths of strings and yarn from a hanging basket, in your lovely bird feeding garden.Look up our section on RECEPIES andHUMMINGBIRDGARDENS to find out how to make your own sugar water solutions, and homemade oriole feeders at our website www.BIRDFEEDERSUSA.com
