How to attract orioles to your yard this spring

Load a birdfeeder with a mixture of seeds, and within days your backyard or window ledge will be buzzing with a community of many different kinds of birds, from bluejays and cardinals to tufted titmice and chickadees. Put out some suet, and woodpeckers will join the party. 

But if you want to see a flash of orange this spring, conventional wisdom says that cut oranges are the best way to attract Baltimore orioles and their close cousins. 

While Baltimore orioles are the most famous of the blackbird family, there are in fact many different oriole species found in the United States. 

“There are approximately 30 or so species of orioles found in the Western Hemisphere,” says Chad Witko, a specialist in avian biology at the National Audubon Society. 

Around a dozen of those species breed in the U.S. and Canada and have a conspicuous sweet tooth. Here’s where to spot orioles on their spring migration and how to attract them as they complete their journey. 

Orioles return to North America

In some ways, it doesn’t seem possible that the tiny birds at your feeder may spend much of their lives winging their way across continents, but orioles and many other backyard bird species are rather epic migrants. 

“Baltimore orioles can fly directly over the Gulf of Mexico,” says Witko. “It’s pretty amazing that they can make those migrations.”  

Baltimore orioles and orchard orioles are the most commonly sighted species in the eastern United States and Bullock’s oriole can be found across the American West. The hooded oriole and Scott’s oriole are common across Mexico and the American Southwest. 

What’s more, orioles are nocturnal migrators, which means they can navigate by starlight, says Witko. 

(Do birds have migration buddies?)

Some oriole species, such as the Altamira oriole found in parts of Texas and Mexico, don’t migrate at all, which shows how different the lifestyles of these colorful birds can be. 

“You know, we think of orioles as our birds, because they nest here,” says Robert Mulvihill, ornithologist at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh. “But for three-quarters of the year, they are eating primarily fruits and sipping on nectar. They are a tropical species for much of the year,” he says.

Like many other migratory songbirds that spend their winters in the neotropics, orioles change their feeding patterns depending on the season. 

Down south, orioles get most of their calories from the nectar in flowers and ripened fruit like bananas, papayas, and mangoes. But when they come north to breed, those same birds will focus on insects, because that gives them the protein they need to lay eggs and raise their young. 

However, Mulvihill says that when orioles first arrive, they are still keying into the colors of ripe fruit that they’ve been eating all winter. 

“Orange catches an oriole’s eye the same way that red catches a hummingbird's eye, because they have come to associate that color in the environment with food,” he says.

How to attract more orioles to your yard

Many people have heard that cut oranges are the quickest way to an oriole’s heart, but is the conventional wisdom actually true? 

“Apparently not universally, because I have put out oranges everywhere I’ve ever lived, and I’ve heard orioles singing within earshot as I’m putting them out, and I have literally never had an oriole come to an orange,” says Mulvihill. 

There are two main ways to get more orioles. First, provide the birds sweet, supplemental food, such as grape jelly. However, experts warn against setting out so much jelly that the birds risk getting the sticky stuff on their feathers. 

For another sweet treat, try to put out sugar water to attract the birds, just as you might with hummingbirds.

Interestingly, Witko notes that the ratio of sugar to water is slightly less for orioles than it is for hummingbirds. 

“For hummingbird nectar, you put four cups of water in a pot with a cup of sugar, then boil it until it all dissolves,” he says. “But for orioles, it’s six parts of water to one part of sugar.”

(How to set up a bird feeder to attract your favorite species)

However, the second and best way to make your space attractive to orioles is by planting native trees and plants.

“Supplemental feeding can be really helpful for birds. It can also be really helpful for people to see birds, but it never is better than native plants,” says Witko.

This is because orioles and other native birds have evolved alongside native plants. And birds use trees as sources of food but also as shelter. 

Mulvihill says he’s noticed that local oaks are really good for orioles because they are full of juicy caterpillars, for example. Likewise, he tends to see oriole nests—which hang below long branches, rather like a sock—in tall shade trees with long branch architecture.

“They love maple trees for that,” says Mulvihill.

While orioles may pluck raspberries and other sweet treats out of your backyard garden, it’s important to remember that they are also performing pest control services during those summer months. 

“They’re doing a good job of eating insect pests that are on your trees and bushes,” says Mulvihill.