Fun Facts About Orioles

• Orioles are insect and fruit eaters. They usually stay hidden in the trees eating and singing their beautiful whistling notes. They can be drawn down from their perches with foods like orange slices, grape jelly, mealworms, suet and nectar feeders.
• When not feeding on nectar, orioles seek out caterpillars, fruits, insects, and spiders.
• Unlike many insect eating birds, Baltimore Orioles will eat spiny or hairy caterpillars, including such pest species as fall webworms, tent caterpillars, and gypsy moths.
• While in their tropical winter habitats, Baltimore and Bullock’s Orioles feed on nectar from numerous flowering trees, which explains their attraction to nectar feeders upon their spring-time return to North America.
• While in their tropical winter habitat, the Baltimore and Bullock’s Oriole play an important role in pollinating several tree species as they transfer pollen from tree to tree while eating nectar from their flowers.
• Most male Baltimore Oriole songs vary enough from one another as to be unique to each individual. It is believed females can identify and locate their mate by its distinct song.
• The Oriole nest is an engineering masterpiece. They weave a hanging-basket nest with plant fibers, grasses, vines and tree bark on the small twigs of a branch 6-45 feet in the air. This keeps them safe from most predators.
• It takes as many as 12 days for an Oriole to weave its nest. One Baltimore Oriole was observed spending 40 hours building a nest with about 10,000 stitches and the tying of thousands of knots, all with its beak.
• The female Baltimore Oriole builds her nest with little or no help from its mate. Only the female incubates and broods, both feed the young.
• Orioles will lay 4-5 eggs anywhere from April to June. The young will fledge as late as 30 days from egg laying.
• Orioles are found across North America in the summer. Some species winter in the tropics and others in Mexico.
• Most Baltimore Orioles spend their winters in southern Mexico, Central America and the tropics, but some will stay in the southern states of the U.S., with a few reports as far north as New England.
• Both the Bullock’s and Baltimore Orioles start their southerly migration as early as July, with August being the prime migration month.
• The Baltimore Oriole was named in the early 1600s for George Calvert, Baron of Baltimore, whose livery stable was painted bright yellow and black.
• The Oriole is the state bird of Maryland.
• The Baltimore Oriole is a common inhabitant of suburban landscapes due to is preference for open settings that are bordered with mature trees.
• Oriole’s are a member of Icteridae family, meaning that their closest bird relatives include meadowlarks, blackbirds, bobolinks and grackles.
• The oriole gets its name from the Latin aureolus, which means golden.
• In areas with high quality habitat, Orchard Orioles may nest in close proximity to each other; a single tree may even contain several nests.
• Orioles appear to be sensitive to the spraying of pesticides, with birds succumbing directly from the poison and from the loss of their insect food sources.
• The oldest banded Baltimore Oriole recaptured in the wild had lived 11 years and 7 months.