If you are lucky enough to have willows, poplars, elms or cherry trees in your yard, you already have a favorable environment to attract orioles. If you don't, however, there are still several simple ways to attract orioles to your garden.
Orioles feed on insects and caterpillars, but also like nuts, suet, and fruit such as oranges, cherries, apples, pears or bananas. In additon to offering the oriole nectar from the recipe below, consider offering chopped fruit on a feeding platform, or nailing half an orange to a tree (simply hammer in the nail, then force the nail through the skin of the orange). Replace fruit daily to ensure the food is fresh and doesn't go moldy.
You could also leave various nesting materials nearby, to encourage the orioles to nest near your home. Good choices include cat or dog fur, dryer lint, or short pieces (3-4 inches) of natural fiber twine and yarn.
There's no need to buy expensive Oriole nectar - make your own, from this simple Oriole syrup recipe:
Oriole Nectar Recipe
1 part sugar/6 parts water
Boil the water first, then measure and add sugar, at the rate of 1/3 cup of sugar to 2 cups of water.
Let cool and store excess in refrigerator until ready to use.
Although commercial oriole food is usually orange colored, do not add food coloring, honey (which ferments), or artificial sweetener to this homemade oriole food recipe.
You will need to clean your feeder every few days, with hot water and a mild (10%) bleach solution to inhibit mold. Rinse thoroughly before refilling with water syrup.
Been doing this now for almost ten years. Started with one feeder. Be patient and if you don't get a lot of hummers or orioles remember to still change the solution frequently (depending upon sun - 3 days max)) and keep the premade solution in the frig.
We usually do a partial fill of several feeders as the Spring wears on until we can gauge how many are visiting at one time. So we start maybe 1/5 full, then 1/4, etc. as we see them emptied daily. Use fresh solution they will come! Boy, will they come! When they empty daily one just has to keep up or the hummers will let you know the feeders are empty!
And ENJOY!
Bob – Poway, CA
Jul 23, 2009 - 00:12
I was going to reply to some and then decided I would write one that answered several questions:
We use identical sugar water for our hummers and our orioles...we tried removing the feeding cups from the feeders and it worked great until the first bee found it and then it took months to get rid of them. Even the Oriole feeders don't keep them out when they get started. Not unusual to find six inches of drowned bee bodies in one feeder so we don't open any feeder and make sure all are wiped clean before we put them out.
We use 3 cups sugar to 96 ounces of water...no boiling needed - or we would never be done. We have 9 - 50 ounce oriole feeders out right now and 8 hummer feeders - 3 being the no longer made 96 ounce ones. At one time I made 705 ounces of feed solution for them all. In the peak of summer we can go through 50 pounds of sugar a week. Most feeders empty in a day. We call our yard the Aviary.
Orioles arrive and soon pair off, raise young, some stay to have a second set (we think) and the juveniles are also a treat to watch. Hummers come in Spring and go in fall and some stay all year. Tried to count (ha ha ha no such luck). We estimate over 250 hummers and over 100 orioles at one time. By October we are ready for them to move along ;-) until next year. For my wife, September because she does most of this daily. Will continue on another post.
jjcapecod – Cape Cod
Jul 13, 2009 - 12:54
I bought a special oriole feeder and used hummingbird mix, as there isn't any mix available locally. I put an orange in the suet feeder ... sliced and up against the edge.
No matter what else I offer, they just eat the grape jelly and ocassionally suet...
How did they get here? They seemed to show up to eat the fruit and nut suet we had out - but we have cherry and crabapple trees - and we have winter moths which give us an awful spring full of caterpillers and their dung all over the deck cars etc .... who chomp the leaves of oaks, and eat the buds of the fruit - the fruit that survives have been smaller and malformed but we have more birds!
As my husband prepared to use some sort of "organic pesticide" a couple of months ago (seems to be a contradiction) I showed him the numbers of birds that were eating these pests. We have a family of chick-a-dees that spent much of the early summer flying in and out of our bird house with the little green caterpillars. My husband put that bird house up and has taken a liking to the birds we have in our feeders, even moving the feeders directly in front of the windows we see from our den.
... the pesticide sits unopened. :)
jjcapecod – Cape Cod
Jul 13, 2009 - 12:21
I see no one is really answering some of the questions --
I want to share that we have four orioles, two seem to be juveniles.
After seeing them at the suet, I read about what they eat. I literally taped a small plastic left over tarter sauce - ketchup container from a to-go meal to the top of one of our feeders and filled it with grape jelly/jam - and they are at it all day long! It gets knocked over a couple times a day - the squirrels have been at it a few times- I just put it back each time. I believe if we feed the birds, we feed the squirrels and we can't choose to tell our wildlife who is welcome and who is not.... I do put aloe on the sheperds poles to discourage them from diving into the feeders, as the squirrels and chipmunks and voles get enough from what falls to the ground.
Lee
Jul 12, 2009 - 11:46
How do you keep the jelly and fruit away from squirrels? Thank you. The ones in my yard will eat everything in sight thus the reason for Yankee Droll (expensive) feeders. ;-)
Linnea – S.E. Michigan
Jun 27, 2009 - 08:30
Is it okay to split the difference between oriole and hummingbird ratio. A gentleman at a store told me I could use a hummingbird feeder also for orioles by removing one of the flowers to facilitate feeding. Is a ratio of 5:1 okay for both birds? I wouldn't want to harm them!
Darrell Howard – Eastern Kentucky
Jun 18, 2009 - 21:34
I have out the correct feeder for yellow birds and Orioles, and so far have not seen any yellow birds. My daughter in the next county does have them. What could be wrong. Thanks, Lorraine P. Howard
kate – Missouri
May 31, 2009 - 08:37
please tell how the grape jelly works and where you found a flower feeder to fit the lid of a jelly jar!! that is cool!!
Reply to kate
Jody
Jul 01, 2009 - 18:06
I put in Jelly feeder in google and came up with a bunch, there is one at Drs Forster and Smith that looked good.
Dawn – Manchester, NH
May 25, 2009 - 21:12
For the first time, we have Orioles nesting on our property in a very tall oak. We have nectar feeders for hummingbirds and Orioles, and funny enough the Oriole tries to drink from the hummingbird feeder. We have also set out peanut butter and jelly, as well as orange halves and suet on a feeding platform for the Orioles. You can use disposable souffle cups for the peanut butter and jelly. To attract hummingbirds, try incorporating hanging baskets or bags or petunias or impatients (red or purple) near the feeders, as hummingbirds will feed from both.
Oriole feeders are similar to hummingbird feeders, but are colored orange, rather than red, with larger feeding holes to accomodate the larger size of the birds.
DELUXE 36oz ORIOLE FEEDER 
