While their more famous cousin, the Baltimore Oriole, gets most of the backyard bird buzz, Orchard Orioles offer a subtler, equally rewarding spectacle. These chestnut-colored songbirds are the smallest oriole in North America, but arguably the most elegant. They’re also one of the earliest to leave, often disappearing before summer even hits its stride.
I always keep an eye (and ear) out for them in June at Faville Grove, especially around the brushy edges of wet prairies and oak savannas. If you find a sprawling bur oak in a sunlit corner of the property, you might just hear the Orchard Oriole’s sweet, jumbled warble drifting down from the canopy.
Orchard Orioles aren’t flashy in the traditional sense. Adult males trade the Baltimore’s fire-orange for deep, burnished chestnut, offset by a black head, back, and tail. It’s a striking combination. Females and young birds are more subtle—yellow-green with white wing bars and a touch of olive. First-year males look similar but develop a black throat patch as a preview of their adult plumage. With their smaller stature, they’re sometimes mistaken for warblers by those just getting into birding.
A male Orchard Oriole (photo by Jeff Steele/SoWBA).
The Orchard Oriole holds its own in the sound department. Their song is a rapid, melodic tangle of whistles and chatters—less rich than a Purple Finch, but just as intricate. They often sing from treetops, and you’re likely to hear them before spotting them.
Orchard Orioles don’t like dense, unbroken forests. Their preferences lean toward open areas with scattered deciduous trees—the kind of patchy landscape you find along rivers, lake edges, and restored prairie groves. Orchard Orioles are sociable nesters, sometimes with several pairs in the same tree. It’s not uncommon to find Orchard Orioles and other species nesting just a few branches apart. This openness to company has its benefits. Nesting near Eastern Kingbirds, for instance, may offer protection: kingbirds are fiercely territorial and often chase off predators and cowbirds.
Oriole nests are remarkable—small hanging pouches woven by the female from grasses and plant fibers, usually attached to the end of a horizontal branch. Orchard Oriole nests are more spherical than the Baltimore Oriole’s, often with a wide-open top.
Female Orchard Oriole perched on a branch (photo by Jeff Steele/SoWBA).
During the breeding season, Orchard Orioles are busy gleaning insects and spiders from leaves and twigs, sometimes grabbing prey midair. But they’re also nectar lovers, frequently visiting hummingbird feeders or stopping by a slice of orange stuck on a nail. Grape jelly is another favorite—though it’s best served in moderation, as it is primarily sugar and lacks the nutritional diversity of natural foods like insects, fruits, and nectar.
Later in the summer and during migration, they load up on ripe fruits like mulberries and chokecherries—quick, sugary energy for the long flight ahead. In their tropical wintering grounds, they eat fruit, seeds, nectar, and insects, and occasionally act as pollinators, especially when they feed directly from flowers (or sneakily pierce the base to skip the pollen).
Unlike many songbirds that hang around into September, Orchard Orioles may leave by mid-July, just as other species are settling in for second broods. That early departure can make them hard to monitor and even harder to study—by the time we’re really tuned into summer bird activity, they’re already headed south.
So, if you visit Faville Grove this month, keep an eye and ear out—especially in our open savanna areas. With a little attention, you can catch their distinctive song and striking colors before they slip away for the season.
Written by Jeff Steele, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward
Cover photo by Liz Julian/USFWS. A male Orchard Oriole perched in a grassland habitat.
