skip to main content

Hooded Orioles in So. Calif.

17 years ago

I was born in Los Angeles over 60 years ago, and except for Hummining Birds, I rarely caught a glimpse of a colorful bird. That's why I'm so pleased right now to have two pair of Hooded Orioles nesting in a Calif Fan Palm Tree outside my bedroom window. I live in Seal Beach, bordering Long Beach to the south in Orange County. "Im wondering if others people in the area are seeing Hooded Orioles. I contacted my local bird watching chapter, but they are on leave from now to September.

I'm new to GardenWeb and finding it a really neat forum.

Thanks all.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (6)

kathi_mdgd
17 years ago
Like you i've been in Ca a lot of years also ,and i've always complained that we didn't have any real pretty birds except for the hummers.In the last 2 years i've seen orioles,and a bluebird.Other than those the finches and hummers are as pretty as they get.

Kathi
rachel_frome_ky
17 years ago
Hooded Orioles..SIGH..
Related Discussions
SoCal Rose list questions
Q
Comments (17)
Kim, I have truck loads of well composted oak leaves...lol I am just happy to know I can dump some on the roses! We have blueberries growing here too, top dressing with an acid mulch is going to be rather common. I hear coffee grounds work well. Because of the soil in this bed, I plan on doing a lot of digging. I have shovel dug and amended at least 1/4 acre in the past years, is does get easier! Even if I am getting older. Jeri, There are several roses in the Sac Catalog that I would love to have, hopefully next year they will have some interesting or similar roses and Mom will be up for the drive. I am hoping once she can see better, I can take her to Descanso and Huntington. I would love to sign up for the San Juan Bautista tour, but no idea how things will go so better not sign up for anything. Besides, I have a bunch of new garden books to read while sitting with mom in the yard. Rosefolly, It is an old house, I think it was the caretakers house to the large mansion that used to be next door. We think the house was built about 1890 in a sort of Queen Anne Cheap style, the mansion not so cheap. It might have been deep gray, white and pink trim as we found evidence of those colors. As a kid, the mansion had fallen in disrepair and was a giant hippy house. By the end of the 70's, hippies in SB was not a popular thing, and there was no effort to save the mansion from the bulldozers. Today, it would have been a precious historical building instead of a bunch of over watered non descript townhouses. Progress.
...See More
Hummers and Baltimore Orioles
Q
Comments (12)
I have 3 nesting pairs of Bullocks orioles they were having a hard time eating from the hummingbird feeders so i drilled out the holes to a larger size. Then i found a oriole feeder at the thrift shop. Then i hung orange slices and put half oranges on a platform. then put a plastic lid about 1/2 inch deep on the platform and filled it with orange juice and pieces of fruit, watermelon, plums or cherrys and apricots now have evening grosbeaks and orioles all the time. Also this year after the young orioles started coming to eat have 11 small orioles here in and out every little bit from daylight to dark. go through 2 to 3 quarts of sugar water and 1 to 2 cups of fresh orange juice and lots of fruit every day. Here the Orioles disappear from late August to early Sept. and show back up in mid april to first part of May to nest.
...See More
Attracting Baltimore Orioles...............
Q
Comments (15)
I also have that feeder... $10 at a local garden shop last year. A couple of things about the feeder: - The color fades if you hang it in the sun all summer. Mine is still orange, but paler than it was. There is a clear difference between the underside and the sun-exposed top side. - I never saw an oriole use the perches. To eat the orange they will hang from the metal rod. Post-migration, when they stopped eating orange and instead preferred grape jelly, they would still cling to the metal rod and stretch down to eat the jelly from the trays. I never saw an oriole drink nectar, but I was a few weeks late getting this feeder up and it's possible they just no longer wanted nectar by that time. I would like to see orioles using the perches, so I'm considering putting an orange slice over each nectar hole and holding them in place by sticking something(stick/nail) down into the holes. - We had never seen orioles before, and I wasn't really expecting to see any when I put the feeder out, but within a couple days there were two of them out there eating the orange. This year I am going to get the feeder out sooner and I also have a vibrant orange bucket sitting in the garage that I'm going to throw over a fence board. Between the feeder and bucket I'm hoping any orioles flying over the area will drop in for a closer look.
...See More
Baltimore Oriole...a handsome pair!
Q
Comments (12)
Thank you all! >>So how do you keep the squirrels from messing with the fruit?I haven't seen any lately....there is one around one's in a while. Keep checking back, I'll put more up one's in a while, these are from my home build, motion/self activated point and shoot Sony camera...thanks for watching!
...See More
Elise
17 years ago
I've lived in California for 32 years, and last year was the first time I saw a Hooded Oriole--it had a nest in the fan palm next to my house in the hills of Berkeley (Bay area). This year the oriole pair returned. Very beautiful bright yellow.

Last year I also had my first ever sightings of a flock of Cedar Waxwings and a pair of Western Bluebirds. They camped out on a row of ornamental cherry trees last fall outside my office building in Pleasanton and stayed until every last berry was gone. I hope they remember to come back this fall.

I do have a few colorful birds that stay here year round and are plentiful -- Spotted Towhees and Stellar Jays. I just bought a new Canon dSLR so it's time to start taking bird pictures!
rachel_frome_ky
17 years ago
I'LL SAY!! Get clicking and post them here!
alan_la
17 years ago
Hooded Orioles are very common in S Cal, along with Bullocks,and in the high desert are the Scott's Orioles, Plus you have to see a Western Tanager if you want colour.
Alan.
glorybea
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks for all the input. I went to post pictures of the orioles on this site, and wound up with a software problem. Apple computer fixed the problem today, so tomorrow, I'll try again. Alan -- I guess it depends where in So. Calif you live. With all the fan palms we have here, there should be plenty, like you said. I've asked as many people as I know in the area, and they have never seen one. They breed in Calif and live in Mexico, the field guide say.

Glorie

Related Stories

GARDENING GUIDES Backyard Birds: Orioles Return After Spending Winter in the Tropics

By Habitat Network

These colorful songbirds prefer woodlands and forest edges, but they’ll visit yards with fruit-producing trees and shrubs

HOUZZ TOURS My Houzz: Northwest Home with a Mountain View

By Whitney Lyons

See how an Oregon couple mixes old and new in their dream home in Lake Oswego

DECORATING GUIDES A Mobile Home Gets a Bohemian-Chic Makeover

By Becky Harris

Designer infuses world traveler’s guesthouse with tribal textiles, Moroccan tiles and kilim rugs

MOST POPULAR Your Guide to 15 Popular Kitchen Countertop Materials

By Vanessa Brunner

Get details and costs on top counter materials to help you narrow down the choices for your kitchen

HOUZZ TOURS Rare Modernist Home Uncovered in Palm Springs

By Nora Burba Trulsson

A custom home by modernist William Krisel gets restored and updated

REMODELING GUIDES Coastal Makeover: A Florida Home Sees the Light

By Mitchell Parker

They're done! Check out the result of a ranch home that went from dark and dated to bright and airy — with a coveted water view

GARDENING AND LANDSCAPING Be a Citizen Scientist to Help Wildlife, Learn and Have Fun Too

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Track butterflies, study birds, capture stars ... when you aid monitoring efforts, you’re lending Mother Nature a hand

GARDENING GUIDES 13 North American Backyard Birds to Know

By Annie Thornton

Find out about these enchanting native species and learn how to attract them to your yard

HOUZZ TOURS Houzz Tour: Thrifty TLC Transforms a Beach Bungalow

By Annie Thornton

A California architect finds ‘the perfect mix of potential and a dump,’ and gets right to work

FIREPLACES Ribbons of Fire: 10 Artfully Minimalist Fireplaces

By Mary Jo Bowling

Long and lean and sleek to the core, these gas-burning fireplaces make a powerful contemporary statement

Sponsored

28 Reviews

Franklin County's Preferred Custom Cabinetry & Design Studio

More Discussions

ID OWL IN S.E. MICHIGAN z5b

0