Adult male Baltimore oriole
Ohio Cooperative Living magazine readers are fascinated with wild birds. I know that because each time I write an “Ask Chip” column about birds or birding, questions/comments from readers abound. Last month — May 2023 — was no exception. My monthly Woods, Waters & Wildlife column featured orioles and how to attract them to backyard birdfeeders in a story titled “Looking Good in Orange.”
Nancy Drake
Q. Living here above Muskingum River, I frequently have a pair of orioles on the dish-type hummingbird feeder hanging on my front porch. Since the feeder must be constantly full for the orioles to reach the sugar water, I would like to add a grape jelly food source. How do you feed this?
A. Hi, Nancy! Simply take an old plate or dish, heavy enough that the wind won’t blow it over, and put grape jelly in the middle of it. And if the plate is orange in color, so much the better. Then, place it in an open area five to six feet off the ground. Or, you can buy specialized, orange-colored oriole feeders that have small compartments around the edges to hold the jelly. Hope this helps. Looking out my home-office window, I have an oriole at my feeder right now!
(Interestingly, I heard back from Nancy a few days later with this humorous reply: “I put some grape jelly in a small white bowl and set it on my porch on a red file-folder cover. The orioles found it immediately, but now I am constantly shooing off a plethora of woodpeckers. These gluttons are draining my dish-type hummingbird feeders as fast as I can top them off. They had better take care of the tent caterpillars on my fruit trees in a few weeks!”)
Jami Crunelle and Karen Clark (both had similar questions)
Q. Why does the man featured in your magazine story (Roman Mast) take down his oriole feeders at the end of June? We get young orioles at our feeder during the summer.
A. I asked Roman about that and here is his response: “I leave my feeders out as long as I can, but we usually get swarms of pollinators — bees and hornets of all kinds — that cover our feeders during summer. It varies from year to year, but to avoid that I take my feeders down by the middle of July at the latest.”
Keith Sturtz
Q. I live just north of Marion. Your story mentioned taking down oriole feeders in late June. My question is, “where do orioles go after that time?” I believe they have their young airborne by then, and presume they move farther north. I wonder if they breed again somewhere else. Any thoughts?
A. Thanks for your question, Keith. I checked with Roman Mast, and he does not think that orioles move farther north after nesting in Ohio. He believes they come to feeders less often during summer because of the abundance of natural food at that time of year.
