Late Summer Orioles

In mid-April I had begun putting grape jelly out for the orioles. They are one of the more colorful birds that I see around my neighborhood.  I hang the jelly feeder out on my front porch, where I can watch the birds visiting it. The orioles often come two or three at a time, and then squabble about who gets to eat first.  They flutter from tree branch to hanging planter to bird feeder; chasing each other around.  It drives my cat crazy, watching their antics from indoors.


During the spring the orioles eat a lot of the jelly, and sometimes a slice of orange, as they visit my yard while migrating back from Central America and setting up their summer territories.  For a couple of months they eat it so fast that I have to refill the little jelly dish every day, and sometimes twice a day.

Then as we get on into summer, they eat less of the jelly and fruit as they set up their nests and hatch their eggs. While raising their young, they eat primarily insects, which provides the proteins for growth.  For a while I thought they'd quit coming at all, but I kept putting out fresh jelly in small quantities, and they still visit occasionally.  At this point, they use a fraction as much jelly as they did in May.

Other birders have commented on orioles ceasing to come to feeders in the summer. Orioles are more active high in tree-tops to find insects, so we may not see much of them at this point in the year. Of course, I am delighted to have their help in controlling insect pests. About half of the orioles' diet is insects such as grasshoppers, wasps, beetles, webworms, ants, caterpillars, and aphids.  Anybody that will help get rids of bugs like these is more than welcome to a few spoonfuls of jelly now and then!

Orioles migrate south for the winter, from September through mid-October.  In the two or three weeks before birds migrate, they prepare for migration by molting any worn feathers and growing new ones, and by eating a lot.  Many songbirds nearly double their body weight before migration.  The fat they store gives them the energy for the long flight.  So it is important during the end of summer and early fall to keep those bird feeders supplied.  I expect jelly consumption to increase over the next few weeks before all of the orioles leave for the winter.