BirdFeeding
It has long been said that black oil sunflower seed is the food of choice for goldfinches. There is one thing that these true seed-eaters like better than black oil sunflower seed, though, and that is nyjer—or more colloquially, thistle seed.
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In the sunshine of a Spring day, in early May, if I’m lucky, a bird unlike any of the others might pay me a visit. They come in a flash of bright orange that is so unlike what my eyes have been seeing all Winter, that I have to double take. Of course, usually by that time, they are on to me and take off! I stare longingly out the window for what feels like ages, waiting for them to come back, before I must continue on with my day and hope my offerings were good enough to keep them coming back for more.
Truthfully, I usually end up in a frenzy—grabbing extra oranges, grapefruits, clementines, or even apples from my produce drawer, and any jam or jelly I might have. Sure, there’s already oranges out there, but I want my yard to be a veritable buffet of sweet treats so they don’t decide the neighbor’s house looks more promising! I cut the sweet citrus fruits in half and skewer them up on tree branches and shepherds hooks, and stick grape jelly out in a little glass bowl on my deck railing. I go inside with fingers crossed and bated breath, and try to busy myself for a while. Within 20 minutes, I’m peaking out the window, again, and to my absolute delight, there is not just one, but TWO male Bullock’s Orioles, sampling the goods! YES!
Through the years, I have learned a few things about attracting orioles to my backyard. It requires a little bit of extra planning and preparation, but it is entirely worth the nominal extra effort to have such exquisite company! Today, I wanted to share some Tips for Attracting Orioles and Feeding Orioles with you, so that you may enjoy their sunshiney company on a spring day, as well!
Many birds at a traditional bird feeding station happily eat seeds. Some birds, like American Goldfinches, eat seeds almost exclusively. Orioles are nothing like these finches and sparrows. They like eating FRUIT, NECTAR, and INSECTS. In fact, I have never seen an oriole even try eating a black oil sunflower seed—they just don’t.
Orioles spend half the year, from like September to March, overwintering in Central & South America. While they are down there, they eat a variety of fruits and insects, flowers and nectar. So when they are on their journey north, they will be looking for delicious fruits to fuel their travels, along with nectar and insects.
FRUIT—This is the easiest food to offer your Orioles—it doesn’t even require a special feeder. They are naturally attracted to the color orange and, in my yard, oranges always seem to be their preferred snack. I have two actual orange feeders, hanging at my feeding station, one homemade and one store-bought. They basically have perches and skewers that hold your fruit halves. But up until last year, I never even used a feeder. I would simply slice oranges (or grapefruits or clementines) in half and poke them on the ends of the shepherd’s hooks holding my feeders, or at the ends of tree branches.
If you are only going to do one thing to attract orioles to your yard, put out their favorite fruit—oranges!
JELLY—Another source of “fruit” you can offer the orioles is in the form of jellies, jams, and marmalades. Contrary to popular belief, orioles (and other fruit-eating neotropical migrants) will eat more than just grape jelly. Maybe concord grape jelly is their preferred, but last year, when I ran out of storebought grape jelly, I put out some plum jam and orange marmalade, and they gobbled it up. If you are offering jelly, you can use whatever inexpensive grape jelly the store has—I would advise you to avoid anything that is sugar free or made with artificial sweeteners like xylitol or aspartame, though.
NECTAR—Orioles will often alight hummingbird feeders looking for a source of quick energy from the sugar water or “nectar” as we call it. Unfortunately, their beaks are often too large to access the holes on a hummingbird feeder. You can offer them the same sugar water solution you mix up for your hummingbirds in a specially-made Oriole Nectar Feeder—a 4:1 water: sugar solution. Oriole Nectar Feeders that have orange on them are often the most attractive. Like hummingbird feeders, these need to be kept clean. You may also notice orioles visiting your flowers for nectar—I’ve heard some gardeners report them eating the flower, petals, nectar, & all!
INSECTS—Once nesting begins, I find the orioles seemingly disappear. Their diet switches from being full of fruit to being more protein-based—they need insects to raise a healthy generation of fledglings. I have been largely unsuccessful with offering dried meal worms, but you may be able to lure them in by offering live mealworms. Or better yet, plant some native plants in your yard, that host native insects and caterpillars, and you will be helping future generations of all sorts of birds, for years to come, even if you can’t see the results up close at your feeding station.
*On the rainiest, crappiest days of spring, on occasion, I have seen my orioles eat from the Suet feeders—although, I don’t feel that this is their preferred food of choice.
Seriously! When it comes to Orioles, you will have the best chance of success if you catch their attention during spring migration, when they are winging their way north for the summer breeding season. This time will vary depending on where you live in the United States or Canada. Generally speaking, the closer the South America you live, the earlier they will pass through your neighborhood on their journey north. Orioles, like other neotropical migrant birds, overwinter in Central and South America. They start heading northward in March, so the more southern your location is, the earlier you are likely to see them. Here in Wyoming, I don’t see them until about the first week of May. If you would like to track the first sightings of Orioles, to try and guess when they may be arriving in your neck of the woods, you can use the website Journey North. If you like the kind of information on this website, be sure to Register for an account, and submit your First Sightings, as well.
The key to attracting orioles during spring migration, is having foods they prefer outside BEFORE they arrive. I start putting out orange slices around April 25th—10 days before their usual return, that way, even if they get back a little early, I am ready for them. Readiness is key, here. If they pass through your neighborhood and there’s nothing they want, they may just continue on their merry way. The years I have been able to successfully attract orioles to my yard, I have been ready with oranges, before their return.
In addition to being much more shy than my other birds, orioles seem to hop from tree top to tree top. Therefore, if you are going to attract them to your yard, you need to have tall trees nearby and you need to place whatever nectar or jelly or fruit feeders you are offering them in their line of sight. If your oranges are under eaves or tight to the underside of a tree canopy, they will have a much harder time finding them. I try to put oranges right out in the open like a big billboard, advertising that they should swoop down from the treetops HERE!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Birds love bird baths! Many birds that don’t even eat at your feeding station will stop by for a drink of water or a bath. Orioles are especially attracted to moving water so a bubbler or fountain will make your birdbath even more attractive to them.
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get an oriole this year! Some folks try for a couple years before they can attract one! And your efforts may help to lure in another neotropical migrating bird, like a grosbeak or a tanager. In fact, the first year I tried to attract an oriole to my yard, I actually ended up with a delightful flock of Western Tanagers! I wasn’t expecting the adorable redheads to stop by, but I was pleasantly surprised to have them. I have also had many Black-Headed Grosbeaks stop by for a beakful of jelly.
So, if the orioles don’t find your house this year, try again next year! And if they do find your house this spring, keep the goodies stocked for them. If they clean out your oranges and you don’t replenish the supply for another two weeks, they will likely not be returning. Birds love consistency, and if you are not consistent in providing them with food, they will move along. In my garden, come summer, there is a time when the orioles seem to quit stopping by—at which point, I will scale back on the amount of fruit I am putting out. Then I begin scanning the tree tops for there pendulous, woven nests. In winter, I can spot them fairly easy, but in summer, as the trees are leafed out, it is such a challenge!
You absolutely do not need fancy, specialty feeders to attract Orioles to your yard, but I do have one from Kettle Moraine, that I love! Their feeders are made from recycled milk jugs, which is terrific, and they are a smaller, family-owned manufacturer. They sell many products on Amazon. They ship promptly and I am always happy with the quality and consistency of their feeders.
A stormy winter’s day results in a feeding frenzy of birds. As such, snow days are some of the best days for drinking coffee and bird watching out my back window. Yesterday, as the snow was falling, I got to enjoy an incredible array of backyard birds. Five blue jays came and went, in a fanfare of brilliant blue, filling their gullets with Zick Dough, black oil sunflower seeds, and peanuts. My regular flock of juncos, in three varieties—oregon, slate-colored, and pink-sided—and the white-crowned sparrow that hangs out with them, were also here for the homemade Zick Dough and bird seed cakes. At least a dozen doves stopped in and cleaned up fallen millet and milo under the feeders. And then there were my finches—we had 19 beautifully-bronzed American Goldfinches show up, along with three redheaded male house finches. These are my seed-eaters, through and through, along with my chatty chickadees, and they especially love my homemade bird seed cakes and pine cone bird seed feeders. Oh, and I can’t forget my Northern Flickers. We had a mated pair of the red-shafted variety here, on and off, all day. They love suet, most of all, especially Zick Dough. As you can see, there is something for everyone here—no songbird forgotten. I have already shared recipes with you for Zick Dough and Pine Cone Bird Seed Feeders, so today, I want to share my recipe for Bird Seed Cakes, also known as Bird Seed Ornaments.
Bird Seed Cakes are convenient and easy-to-make bird seed treats that are sure to be loved by your backyard birds. They utilize gelatin as a binder to hold bird seed together in individual cakes. Tie a string to them and it makes them easy to hang—like little ornaments. They are also great gifts for teachers, neighbors, grandparents—really, anyone who loves nature! They are a great way to feed birds without needing a special bird feeder—just hang them around your house and the birds will come. This last christmas, I hung more than a dozen from a small tree in my father-in-law’s yard, and he was surprised with all the birds they attracted. Within just a couple days, his yard became the hot spot for mountain chickadees, black-capped chickadees, and red-breasted nuthatches. Plus, because I tied cute christmas ribbons to each one, they fit in with the christmas decor, and looked just like ornaments hanging from the tree.
These Bird Seed Cakes couldn’t be easier to make, but they do require some patience, as they will need to set up and harden before you can offer them to your backyard birds. (If you want something that will be immediately ready for bird consumption, try making these Pine Cone Bird Seed Feeders instead!) To make these bird seed ornaments, you will simply mix up a gelatin binding base, combine it with some seed, press it into molds, and wait until they harden up. Tie a string to each feeder and hang them from your trees, and before you know it, the neighborhood birds will be flocking to your yard.
The gelatin binding base in this recipe always stays the same, but the resulting ornaments are usually slightly different because variety is the spice of life, and what I put in these depends on what bird seed I have available. Sometimes when I make them, I will substitute in dried fruit or chopped peanuts for some of the seed. Other times, I’ll make them with a no-mess seed blend containing sunflower kernels, chopped peanuts, cracked corn, and proso millet—pure, ready-to-eat birdy goodness! Most of the time, however, I’ll just whip these up with my regular bird seed mix that I make at home in large totes. My mix varies a little but the general formula come refill time is as follows:
(ONE) 50 pound bag of black oil sunflower seeds
(ONE) 25 pound bag of wild bird seed mix—normally this has a combinations of black oil sunflower seeds, corn, millet, milo*, and safflower seed
(TWO or THREE) 5-10 pound bags of whatever else looks good at the store—usually I’ll find no-mess mixes with lots of peanuts and sunflower kernels or a mix geared toward woodpeckers or chickadees that has little pieces of dried fruit with peanuts, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, almonds, pecans, striped sunflower seeds, etc.
*I’m okay with mixes containing milo and millet because the doves here readily eat it!
Once you combine your seed with your gelatin binder, you will press the mixture into molds that have been greased with cooking spray. You can use a number of different molds for this recipe. I prefer making individual cakes using cupcake tins or slightly larger muffin tins. I also have some mini-bundt tins that work perfectly for this recipe. If you have large metal cookie cutters, those will give you cute shapes. If you would rather make one large bird seed wreath, as opposed to lots of little ornaments, you can use a large bundt pan—just be sure to give it a few days to dry out fully. And, if you have none of the aforementioned containers, just use what you have—even plastic cups or bowls will work.
In order to hang these easily, you will have to have a means of tying a ribbon or string to each cake. I find that putting a hole right into the center of each cake works best, rather than trying to wrap a string around them afterwards, or place a string in them as you are filling the molds. The easiest way to create a hole is to use a drill bit large enough to accommodate your string AFTER the ornaments have set up and dried completely. Until I discovered how well the drill worked, though, I would always just use my finger, or better yet, a pencil-thin wooden dowel. To do this, simply pack your molds full, then before they set, sink your finger or dowel straight down into the center of each cake. Before removing your finger or dowel, put pressure with your other hand around it, so when you remove your finger or the dowel, seed mixture doesn’t get dislodged. Then set your cakes off the side to dry up for a day or two.
When your cakes have completely dried, tie a string to each one. I get a length of ribbon or twine that is about 10-12 inches long, place one end through the hole of the cake and then do a simple overhand knot where the two ends meet. When I hang them, I try to place them near a branch or a spot that birds can perch on while eating. Most seed-eating birds aren’t capable of hovering to eat, so if you hang these from your eaves or a spot where there is nothing to perch on, they may go uneaten. I store “extras” in my freezer to maintain their freshness.
Lots of my backyard birds enjoy these bird seed cakes, including Black-Capped Chickadees, Mountain Chickadees, Goldfinches, Juncos, Red-Breasted Nuthatches, White-Breasted Nuthatches, and Downy Woodpeckers. I’ve attached a PRINTABLE VERSION of this recipe for your convenience. If you try it, please come back and tell me which of your backyard birds have stopped by to try them.
1 cup water
2 -.25 oz. envelopes Knox unflavored gelatin
⅓ cup light corn syrup
1 cup all-purpose flour
8-10 cups bird seed*
Nonstick cooking spray
Prepare Gelatin Binder: In a large pot over medium heat, dissolve packets of plain gelatin mix in water. Add the corn syrup. Once the mix is completely dissolved, turn off the heat and whisk in flour. Your mixture should be smooth and somewhat runny--like Elmer’s glue.
Add the Seed: Add half the bird seed to the gelatin binder mixture. Stir to coat evenly. Add remaining bird seed, one cup at a time. Seed should be thoroughly coated, but not so wet that it is gloppy and hard to work with.
Transfer to molds: Scoop seed into greased muffin/cupcake/bundt pans and use the back of a metal spoon to really pack it in tightly. You could also use greased metal cookie cutters for fun shapes. You can either poke holes in each feeder with your finger or a wooden dowel before they set up, or use a large drill bit and drill out a hole after they dry for a couple days. I prefer to drill a hole, but have done both successfully.
To Serve: Once cakes are fully dried, tie a string or ribbon to each bird seed cake, and hang from the trees in your yard.
Store in your Freezer until ready to serve.
