Saturday, June 7, 2014

Special Visitors - Baltimore Orioles

It was oriole season, my brother put out some oranges. On the 18th of April I saw three orioles, not at the oranges, but at the suet, which had berries in it. There were two males and one female, the males flew away and I didn't see them for the rest of the day, but the female stayed. 
female Baltimore Orioles

The next day I thought they might be gone already, last year we had one which stayed for a day only, I was wrong. The numbers had increased, we counted at least seven.
male Baltimore Oriole
 They ate the oranges fast and furious, we went through a bag of them in a day or two, we had to make up with it bananas, strawberries and grape jelly. The grape jelly was one of their favourite food.

 I got this series of pictures of a female flying to an orange

female Orioles flying to orange
 Over the next few days their numbers increased even more, there were at least fifteen in all.
male Oriole

Oriole eating and orange.

Three males fighting over the oranges
 Their colours are so brilliant it's a shame when they leave.

One of my favourite shots of them.


Baltimore Oriole
 Eating the oranges

This is my all time favourite shot I got of the orioles.
Baltimore Oriole


It was a really wonderful experience to have birds with such spectacular colours around for a whole week, it makes the yard seem tropical.
We saw a few hanging around the yard afterwards, hopefully they are nesting.

3 comments:

  1. Wow! Congratulations on such exciting visitors, and terrific photos to boot!

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  2. There's really big difference between the males and females! Really good pictures!

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