Mystery Bird

Our hummingbird feeders are starting to get busy.  When we returned from our trip this summer, we set out one feeder and discovered that, in spite of the drought and the weeks of 100 plus temperatures, we still had one or two hummers that had decided to stay all year.

We now have three feeders up and have seen as many as six birds at a time, an indication that we might be hosting quite a few more.  In addition to the hummingbirds, we often see a small woodpecker or sapsucker sipping from the feeders.

Last week, we got a new visitor.  A big bird with a flaming orange breast has been feeding several times a day.  Not big like an owl or a heron, more the size of a cardinal or mockingbird – but in relation to the hummingbirds, he’s huge - big enough that his weight causes the feeder to tilt.

He’s smart, too.  Too large to perch and drink from the opening in front of him, he lands sideways and helps himself to sugar-water from the next hole over.

In my 69 years in southeast Texas, I had never seen a bird with a brilliant day-glow orange breast, so I went on line to try to identify our visitor.  I found a website - Whatbird.com – dedicated to serious bird watchers. 

The website has a search engine that allows you to use various descriptors to identify a bird. That search finally narrowed down to either a Black-headed Grosbeak or a Baltimore Oriole.  I was sure a Grosbeak would be unable to sip from a hummingbird feeder, and I wasn’t at all sure about the Oriole.

After several days of trying, I finally got some pictures.  Not the shot I was hoping for - by the time I got outside with my camera, the bird had left the feeder and was up in a tree.

I posted the photos on the Whatbird forum, and almost immediately the experts there replied that it is in fact a Baltimore Oriole.  One bird maven from Canada even wrote that Baltimore Orioles often visit hummingbird feeders.