mikeb@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Mike Burger) (07/18/90)
In Oklahoma my grandfather used to keep a standard chicken waterer (sold at feed stores to screw on the top of a Mason jar and then be inverted to keep a circular dish filled with water) with sugar water colored red with standard food coloring as a regular part of his feeding station during the summer. It held a quart and on a hot day it would be emptied every day! It attracted mostly orioles who would go wild for it. I have also seen orioles attempting to raid a hummingbird feeder. This was years ago and the question of the possible damage we might be doing by offering these orioles a diet of massive amounts of white sugar never came up. They certainly packed it away! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mike Burger Department of Chemistry | 2545 The Mall | BITNET: MIKEB@UHCCUX.bitnet | University of Hawaii | INTERNET: mike@helium.chem.hawaii.edu | Honolulu, Hawaii, 96822 |
GC.SUL@forsythe.stanford.edu (Sullivan) (05/29/91)
I was thrilled the last few weeks to find Orioles feeding from my humingbird feeder. However, the poor things were trying to flutter and feed at the same time and could only maintain their balance for aobut 5 seconds. My feeder doesn't have a perch, so I was intending to go out and buy an oriole feeder, knowing that it is basicly a modified hummingbird feeder, but also hoping that it has some sort of perch to make it easier for the orioles. There was a pair, but I haven't seen them lately, so may wait. K. Sullivan
mike@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (06/04/91)
In Oklahoma we used to use an ordinary chicken waterer purchased as a metal top to be screwed onto an ordinary quart Mason Jar. When inverted, it filled the saucer like top much like any inverted liquid feeder. We placed it on a flat slab of concrete about four feet off the ground so the birds would have a place to perch while feeding. We would load it with red sugar water. The orioles would flock to it along with Blue Jays and some other birds. They would clean out a quart bottle every day during the hot summer. The chicken watering bottle top was about 85 cents at any feed coop. It is probably two bucks now. mike@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu