They are stunning! We don't have orioles or cardinals out west. Seeing both types of birds in person is something I hope to do one day.

I didn't realize there are no Cardinals out west. My resident male cardinal got killed a month or so ago by the cat next door. I have now moved my feeders over the top of a shed where the cats can't get to them.

The suet basket is popular today. I believe this is a downy woodpecker. If anyone knows the difference between downy and hairy, please give your opinions.

Moonie--I had 3 orioles, a male and 2 immatures, spend the winter with me last year. A male was at my feeder for a few days in October but I haven't seen him since. I hope yours stay all winter. This picture was taken 12/19/15.

I'm not sure about your woodpecker. The Hairy is larger (9" vs 6"), with a longer bill. There are also bars on the white outer tail feathers of the Downy but they can be hard to see.

I live almost at the Pacific Ocean, and we do have orioles in the west. In fact, we see the Bullock's form of northern oriole, hooded orioles and, in the more arid habitats of the southwest, Scott's oriole. Cardinals, no.

Junco, what's in your feeder?

In that picture it looks like No-Mess from Wild Birds Unlimited. I now have plain Black Oil Sunflower in that feeder and the male was eating that in October.

That looks like a downy woodpecker to me. We have them at our house here in Georgia as well as the red-bellied woodpeckers that have the red head. I don't know why they are called "red-bellied" when their bellies are white. We had a few Baltimore Orioles earlier this year, but I've not seen any lately.

Thanks, junco. I wondered what all they would eat. I have an empty basket and getting ready to head to the grocery store. Maybe I'll pick up an orange just for hoots. :)

linda - lol. My poor memory.... I had researched not long ago and found out it is a downy. lol Thank you. :)

Linda--the Red-bellied actually has a slight red cast to its lower abdomen. It can only be seen IF you are holding it in your hand! That's how most of our birds were originally named, pre binoculars.

I'm in Pa, the Orioles love my hummingbird feeders in the summer. I actually had to replace my HB feeders with ones that had a perch for the Orioles. I tried the Oriole feeders but they have no interest. I've never seen them this time of year, but were loaded with Cardinals.

I love orioles! We have them briefly come to our feeders in May and June in Wisconsin. Then they must go off to nest because we can hear them all summer, but they are hard to spot. They love cut oranges and grape jelly. They will eat a whole bowl of grape jelly in a week. Enjoy them, hope they stick around.

Here in north central Minnesota, in the summertime, we have orioles all at the orange and grape jelly feeders, but this year they were at the hummingbird feeders many times. One morning, a whole family (I assumed) was at a couple of the latter......one strident male and three lesser colored ones that I assumed were the female and young ones that didn't have their bright color yet.

Very cool! We don't get them even though I've tried.

We do have loads of Downies and Red Bellies. Plus loads of cardinals which I love, and the occasional migration of beautiful cedar waxwings.