So many people we’ve talked with are enjoying excellent
numbers of Baltimore orioles at their feeders now. Apparently
these birds had good nesting success in our region last summer,
enjoyed favorable wintering conditions with adequate food to the
south, and experienced safe flights back north in recent
weeks.
We study the orioles in our front yard from the first day they
arrive, some days as many as a dozen feed together, and can only
feel that some have been at our place in previous years.
Banding studies do reveal that adults often return to exactly the
same areas to nest in successive summers. Adult females and
first year males are quite variable. They have two white wing
bars, various amounts of orange underparts and some black on the
throat, hood and upper parts.
My best educated guess is that the intensely colored males,
sporting deep rich orange chests and bellies may be three or more
years old. The male is the only oriole in North America with a
fully black hood and back, orange in the tail, single white
wingbar and orange shoulder patches on black wings. Little
wonder this bird has become such a popular and well-loved bird
wherever it nests.
Years ago, when I did environmental education classes with
county school children, one of my favorite teaching props
consisted of around a dozen life-size plastic bird models made
from kits that were painted quite realistically. The students
could easily handle and study them and enrich their concepts of
some of the common nesting birds including the Baltimore oriole.
The children always enjoyed simple little challenges presented
to them. For example, I would hold the male Baltimore oriole in
back of me and tell the fledgling birdwatchers that they were
going to have ten seconds to carefully study the bird to locate
five different colors on its body. Now I quickly held the model
high so all could see it. Few got this little test wrong. The
colors were black, orange, yellow, white and gray (beak). Yes,
some birds don’t offer you much of a look and you have to very
quickly analyze body shape, size, colors, type of beak and
mannerisms.
Few other bird species can match the female Baltimore oriole
in nest construction. What she may lack in color is made up by
her unbelievable weaving artistry. So well built are the nests
that it is not uncommon for one to survive the winds and storms
of three or four years before finally disappearing completely.
It is used for only one summer.
Even though the male may help a little in the building, the
female is the primary architect. Stringy plant parts included in
the nest may be fibers of grapevine, grasses, spreading dogbane,
the strong silky strands of last year’s common milkweeds and tail
or mane hairs from horses. It is not uncommon in the South to
find nests that have been fashioned entirely from Spanish moss,
or the "old man’s beard."
Nearly every nest I have ever seen has been gray in color.
One exception was discovered next to a horse farm between Green
Bay and Pulaski where brown-bodied black-tailed quarter horses
were being raised. That particular nest, suspended in an elm
tree across the road from the stable, was made entirely from the
long black tail hairs of the quarter horses and was a thing of
Black Beauty!
Generally the nests are entered from the top. However, I have
seen several nests with what appeared to be an additional side
entrance. I have thought too that, with some of the nests being
as deep as eight inches, perhaps what appeared to be a side
entrance was nothing more than a window for the adult to look
through while incubating the eggs.
It was during the period in our history when the dreadful
Dutch elm disease killed nearly all of the American elm trees in
much of the country, that the bird experts began feeling sorry
for the Baltimore orioles. Studies had indicated that upwards of
85% of their nests were built in the elm trees. Fortunately the
Baltimore oriole is a very adaptable bird and appeared to suffer
very little in having to use other tree species for their nest
sites, trees such as cottonwoods and silver maples. I’ve also s
een their nests in quaking aspens and one around eight feet off
the ground in an apple tree, right in front of a living room
window.
The males birds arrived this May, as usual, several days
before the females did and were quite silent all during that
time. Suddenly the first females arrived at the oranges and
grape jelly and immediately the males produced their welcome
outpouring of strong, pure liquid notes. Shortly after the
pairing has been accomplished the male will sing relatively
little, other than the short calls and songs used to maintain
contact. The persistent singing you hear after around the middle
of May will be from f irst year unmated males, learning the
ropes, searching for a female.
The orioles surely can empty the flesh of an orange half
quickly. It is then that we place a few tablespoons of grape
jelly into the hollowed-out shell. Once those get a little too
beat-up we put those halves on the ground and place jelly there
too. The orioles don’t mind that a bit!
Lord Baltimore, what an honor it is to have one of our most
brilliant and artistic songbirds, singer deluxe, named after you.
We too deem it a real honor to number ourselves among the
fortunate people who have orioles brightening their summer yards
and their lives.
There is little wonder that the Baltimore oriole has become
such a popular and well-loved bird wherever it nests.
This column appeared in the Door County Advocate
on 05/22/2004.
© Copyright 2004 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.
