Bullock's Oriole

West of the Great Plains, Bullock's Oriole takes over the Baltimore's role — a blaze of orange in every riverside cottonwood gallery from Texas to Washington. The two species meet along the Platte and hybridize, a textbook case that once had them lumped as a single 'Northern Oriole.'

Range

Breeds throughout the West from the Pacific coast to the western Great Plains, north into southern British Columbia. Winters in Mexico; small numbers winter along the Gulf Coast, especially Louisiana.

Migration timing

Arrives in the desert Southwest in late March and early April, the Great Basin and California interior through April, and the Northwest by early to mid-May. Departure is early — most leave in August, and by mid-September the cottonwoods are quiet.

How to identify one

• Male: orange face with a black eyeline and black crown (not a full hood), big white wing patch
• Female: yellowish head and chest, gray belly — grayer than female Baltimore
• Chattery, less musical song than Baltimore's

At the feeder

Same menu as the Baltimore — jelly, orange halves, 6:1 nectar — with one western adjustment: in hot interior summers, put jelly out only in small amounts and keep nectar shaded and fresh. Riverside and ranch-country yards near cottonwoods get the most traffic.

Where to find the Bullock's Oriole

FeederDates › Orioles › Species › Bullock's Oriole