Marian - That roadrunner would've been a great thing to get a video of. Happy ending but - I heard a thunk against my window this morning and went outside to find a male Baltimore Oriole sitting on the ground with his head tipped sideways and his beak hanging open. It took him 15 or 20 minutes to recover and he looked like he was getting worse for awhile instead of better. He kept closing his eyes. I couldn't resist letting him sit on my hand for awhile and I fed him some of the nectar from the Oriole feeder. They're so pretty. My kids have made home-made snowflakes and stuck them all over my bay window to keep the birds from flying into it since it's close to my bird feeders. I'm surprised he flew into it but he may have seen his reflection. Yesterday, he was landing on the ledge under the window and pecking against the glass. I wish I had another Oriole feeder. They seem to be territorial. It has four perches but I never seen more than one at a time at it. There were two male Orchard Orioles chattering at each other in the tree for a long time yesterday but neither of them would go to the feeder and the Baltimore Oriole won't go to it if there's already an Orchard Oriole there.

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.

2 & 3 yrs ago only had 1 male come to nectar feeder for a couple weeks. last year had both male and female come to grape jelly and nectar feeder for a couple weeks also. this year we set out 3 feeding stations with nectar feeder, grape jelly and a bowl of diluted grape jelly. had multiple males and females coming to all 3 feeders. the males likes solid grape jelly the females likes the diluted grape jelly. our first sighting for orioles were may 3rd. they stopped coming by may 25th. they disappeared for about 2 weeks and returned June 6th. by June 30th starting seeing baby orioles. we have been blessed to see parents and babies playing and flying from tree to tree in the trees that surround our property and also feeding at 1 particular feeding station.

My yard has numerous mature trees, mostly an open woodland habitat, which is the attractive to Orioles. There is a large Pin Oak right above my deck and bird feeders. Baltimore Orioles have nested in this tree for 3 years in a row. This year I've been watching them more closely and reporting sightings to the Oriole Project with Mass Audubon. Right now, both parents are very busy feeding the babies, and I can hear them squeaking when they are getting fed! Their nest is located at the end of a branch at the bottom of the canopy about 30 feet above the ground. It is a different branch each year, but the nests have been close to each other and the shell of the previous year's nest hangs there for awhile. The nest is an amazing hanging pouch of woven fibers. I watched the female weave the nest this year! I don't feed Orioles, and have reduced the amount of food I put in the feeders because I didn't want to attract a lot of birds to the feeding station so as not to disturb the Orioles. They are very territorial about their nesting area. When the female was incubating eggs, Dad was aggressively chasing away all birds, from Crows and Grackles, to even the little Goldfinches! I can't imagine them tolerating other Orioles near the nest. I don't know how far they nest from feeders or other food sources, but I've observed them several time flitting through the branches and leaves of assorted trees (including Crabapples), probably picking at insects. Here's a couple pics from this year.