Tips To Help You Choose The Best Oriole Bird Feeder

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Providing An Oriole Bird Feeder

Attracting orioles to your backyard is not difficult. The best way to attract these beautiful song birds is by providing food and water sources. Of course, a the right kind of bird bath is crucial if you would like to give neighborhood orioles a place to swim, preen and drink. But if you would like to attract more these beautiful birds to your backyard bird habitat, you will need to provide an oriole bird feeder and offer several types specialized foods to attract them.

There are 9 types of orioles typically found in North America. These include the Altamira, the Audubon’s, the Baltimore, the Bullock’s, the Hooded, the orchard, the Scott’s, the Spot-Breasted and the Streak Backed. All of these types of orioles feast on similar foods. If you learn the basic dietary preferences of these beautiful birds, you will have no trouble attracting them to your backyard. A specialized oriole bird feeder can help you offer the right kinds of food.

In the wild, orioles feast on beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, moths, and flies. They also eat spiders and snails. You can use your feeder to supplement their wild diet with other foods. Oriole bird feeders differ from other bird feeders in several ways because these birds prefer to feed on dark, sweet fruits rather than seed. Oriole bird food and feeders are not difficult to find. In fact, choices abound if you know what to look for. Here is some information about what these colorful songbirds like to eat.

What Do Orioles Eat?

Much like hummingbirds, orioles like to eat nectar. Also like hummingbirds, you can easily make oriole nectar at home. However, if you would like to attract the most orioles to your yard, it is best to provide a greater variety of food. Orioles love fruit and will enjoy the orange and apple halves you place in your feeder. You can also crush grapes to make a jelly and place the jelly in the bird feeder bowls, or inside an orange peel.

Orioles also eat suet, so placing a suet bird feeder in your backyard will also attract these songbirds. For more protein and greater variety add some peanut butter and pieces of fruit to the suet. Orioles are also known to eat flowers and flower parts.

In the wild, orioles are known to feed on insects, such as grasshoppers, caterpillars, beetles, wasps bugs, and spiders.

Oriole Bird Feeder Nectar Recipe

Oriole nectar can be a great complement to the other foods you offer orioles. Just like hummingbird water, oriole nectar is easy to make at home and consists of simple sugar and water. To make oriole nectar, all you need is 1/2 cup of sugar and 3 cups of water. Then

1. Boil the water
2. Add the sugar into the water and stir the solution well.
3. Allow the solution to cool
4. Fill your oriole feeder with the solution.

Please note that no food coloring should be added to the solution. This used to be common practice, but now we know that the chemicals in food coloring are harmful to the birds. The nectar in your feeder should be replaced about every 3 days. Clean the feeder with warm water and a non-toxic ingredient, such as olive oil or vinegar.

The Best Oriole Bird Feeder

The best oriole bird feeder we have found is the Poly-Recycled Oriole Feeder SNOF. Not only is this bird feeder sturdy, it is environmentally friendly because it is made of recycled plastic. This feeder has everything an oriole bird feeder should have, including a roof to keep the food from spoiling and to protect it from the elements. It is bright orange in color, one of the bright colors known to be most attractive to orioles. In addition to the two cups, which can be used to offer jelly, there are also two spikes for orange halves, apples or other fruits. Backyard birders report that this feeder also attracts cardinals, robins, finches and others!

You will attract the most orioles by placing this feeder away from other bird feeders and away from humans. Orioles tend to be shy, solitary birds do not like to feed in busy, unfamiliar areas. If you put this feeder in your yard during late March or early April, you will have the best chance of attracting migratory birds as they move north after the cold weather. The birds will feel most comfortable if you put your oriole bird feeder near green deciduous trees and shrubs.

Other Oriole Bird Feeders

The Perky Pet 36oz Oriole Bird Feeder is they type that dispenses oriole nectar. If you do decide to get a feeder like this one, make sure it is to supplement the other oriole food you provide. Oriole nectar should only be offered in conjunction with other, healthier kinds of foods. This feeder features a bee guard to prevent insects from getting into the feeder. It has 3 feeding stations and perches and is orange, the color orioles are most attracted to.