The oriole loves summer, and after returning from tropical wintering grounds in Central and South America, he creates a show in his feathered finery of fiery orange and jet black. You’ll spot orioles in yards and gardens in rural, suburban, and even urban settings, as long as there are mature trees around.
Look for a stunning bird with blaze-orange chest, belly, and back, and black head and wings. Females are a drab orangey olive-yellow.
Listen for the oriole’s beautiful flute-like hoo-li song of four to eight notes.
Search with binoculars for an oriole nest—a woven basket of plant fibers and bark strands suspended from the tip of a branch high in a tree. Leave out pieces of string and yarn (under 8 inches long) for nest materials.
Attract orioles with orange halves impaled fruit-side-up on a deck rail or tree trunk. Set out a tray of grape jelly. Put sugar water into an oriole feeder.
Did you know that the Baltimore oriole (East) and Bullock’s oriole (West) were once considered distinct species? But they readily interbreed where their ranges overlap, and are now known simply as the northern oriole.