When to Put Out Oriole Feeders: State-by-State Dates

When to put out oriole feeders comes down to one date: about a week before the first orioles usually reach your state. That means the week of April 15-21 for most of the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and southern New England, April 22 to May 7 for the Upper Midwest and northern New England, and mid to late March along the Gulf Coast. That is the whole answer for most yards. The reason so many feeders sit empty in May is that “put it out in spring” is not a date. Below is a state-by-state table built from eBird’s weekly frequency data (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), plus the week to take feeders down in fall.

TL;DR

• Rule: put oriole feeders out 1 week before first arrivals in your state, which is roughly 3 weeks before the peak.
• Most of the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, lower Great Lakes, and southern New England: out by April 15-21.
• Upper Midwest (Minnesota, the Dakotas) and northern New England: out by April 22 to May 7.
• Gulf Coast and Deep South: out by March 15 to April 7 (Orchard Orioles arrive first).
• California and Arizona: Hooded and Bullock’s Orioles arrive in March; feeders out by March 1-21.
• Florida, Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas: Baltimore Orioles are partly winter and migration visitors; leave a feeder up from fall through April.
• Take feeders down about 2 weeks after your last sighting: usually mid to late September across the north, late August to mid-September in the Mountain West, mid to late October on the Gulf.
• Feed the same three things on day one: orange halves, a tablespoon of grape jelly, and 4:1 nectar. Feeder styles and placement are in our oriole feeder guide.

Why the put-out date matters more than the feeder

Orioles arrive hungry for sugar. Cornell Lab’s Baltimore Oriole life history explains that in spring and fall, nectar and ripe fruit make up more of the diet because those sugary foods convert readily into the fat that fuels migration, while in summer the diet shifts to insects for growing nestlings. The window when a feeder is most attractive is therefore the arrival window, not the whole summer.

That window is short and predictable. Cornell’s range map page puts it plainly: “From early April to late May, flocks arrive in eastern and central North America to breed from Louisiana through central Canada.” Journey North narrows it further: the peak of oriole migration runs from mid-April through mid-May, with the first birds reaching Texas in April, a few reaching the central states by the end of the month, and the northern states in May.

A feeder that goes out after the local wave has passed is competing with flowers, tree buds, and the neighbor who put oranges out two weeks earlier. A feeder that goes out a week early costs you one orange.

When to put out oriole feeders by state (eBird arrival data)

The tables below come from eBird bar charts, the Cornell Lab’s public record of how often each species appears on birders’ checklists in each state, week by week, across all years. We read three things off each chart: first arrivals (the first spring week when at least 1 in 100 checklists reports the species), main arrival (the first week at 25 percent of the state’s annual peak), and the peak week. Your put-out date is the week before first arrivals. Warm springs run about a week early; cold, wet Aprils run a week late. If your state has more than one oriole species, we list the one most yards see first.

You can check your own state in about a minute: open the eBird bar chart for Michigan and change the two-letter state code in the address bar.

Upper Midwest and Great Lakes (put out by April 8 to May 7)

This is the heart of Baltimore Oriole country. In Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan, orioles show up on roughly half of all checklists at the mid-May peak.

In the northern half of this region, Orchard Orioles arrive about a week behind the Baltimores (first week of May in Michigan and Wisconsin, second week in Minnesota), and most have left again by late July or early August, so a feeder out in mid-April covers both.

When to put out oriole feeders in Michigan

By April 15-21, statewide. eBird’s Michigan chart shows Baltimore Orioles crossing the 1 percent line during April 22-30, reaching a quarter of peak numbers in the first week of May, and peaking May 8-14, when roughly 46 percent of checklists include one. County-level charts show the north-south split inside the state. In the southern Lower Peninsula (Wayne, Kent, and Kalamazoo counties), first arrivals land April 22-30 and the main wave May 1-7, so feeders go out by April 15-21. In the northern Lower Peninsula (Grand Traverse and Emmet counties), first arrivals slip to May 1-7, so feeders can wait until about April 25. In the Upper Peninsula (Marquette County), first arrivals come May 8-14, so May 1 is early enough. Regular sightings run through mid-August, with stragglers into the first week of September.

Northeast and New England (put out by April 15 to April 30)

Massachusetts and Iowa are the two most oriole-dense states in the eBird data, with orioles on more than half of all checklists at the May peak. In Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine, stragglers still turn up into the first week of October, and a handful of Baltimore Orioles appear on winter checklists from New Jersey to Maine.

Mid-Atlantic, lower Midwest, and Upper South (put out by April 1 to April 21)

Here Baltimore and Orchard Orioles arrive within a week of each other, and in Tennessee the Orchard Oriole is the one most often reported in summer. One feeder date covers both species.

Plains and Mountain West (put out by April 1 to May 7)

Baltimore Orioles dominate the eastern Plains and Bullock’s Orioles the West. In the Great Plains, where their ranges overlap, the two frequently hybridize (Cornell Lab). Both species use the same feeders.

Cornell’s Bullock’s Oriole page notes that these birds skip seed feeders but look for sugary foods as they complete spring migration, and will visit hummingbird feeders as long as the feeders have perches. Cornell also suggests a half-and-half blend of water and grape jelly in a small, shallow dish. A perch-style nectar feeder in a western yard can serve orioles and hummingbirds at once.

South and Gulf Coast (put out by March 15 to April 7)

The South runs on a different species. Orchard Orioles are the summer orioles across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, arriving between late March and mid-April. Baltimore Orioles pass through in April on their way north, in big enough numbers that a Texas or Louisiana feeder sees both.

Texas also gets Hooded Orioles, which reach the state in the second week of March, so a Texas yard inside the Hooded Oriole’s range can put nectar out by March 1.

Orchard Orioles also leave early. Cornell Lab’s Orchard Oriole page says they “migrate north late in the spring and head southward early, with some returning to their wintering grounds as early as mid-July.” In Georgia and the Carolinas, regular sightings fade by mid-July.

West Coast and Southwest (put out by March 1 to April 30)

Hooded Orioles are the early birds of the Southwest. Cornell’s Hooded Oriole page recommends halved oranges secured to a post, or a hummingbird feeder with slightly larger holes filled with 4:1 sugar water, and notes that a few Hooded Orioles in southern California and Arizona stay in neighborhoods all winter, feeding at hummingbird feeders instead of migrating south. If you are in Phoenix, Tucson, San Diego, or Los Angeles, a nectar feeder with perches can stay up year-round, as long as you clean and refill it every few days.

Southeast: Baltimore Orioles are winter birds here

Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas partly flip the calendar. eBird shows Baltimore Orioles on roughly 1.5 to 4.5 percent of winter checklists in these states, a steady winter presence rather than just a spring pass-through, and in Florida and Georgia the yearly peak comes in September, not May. Cornell lists Florida among the species’ wintering grounds, and Audubon’s guide to attracting hummingbirds and orioles makes the same point more broadly: where winter freezes are rare, some orioles stay through winter.

So the Southeast rule is the reverse of everywhere else: keep a jelly or nectar feeder up from October through April for wintering and migrating Baltimore Orioles, and put oranges out by late March or the first week of April for the Orchard Orioles that nest there in summer.

What to put out on day one

Orioles skip seed feeders (Cornell says as much for Bullock’s and Orchard Orioles), so the feeder you already own will not draw them. Cornell’s backyard tips for Baltimore Orioles are the checklist: cut oranges in half and hang them from trees, offer an oriole feeder filled with sugar water, and put out small amounts of jelly, never so much that it risks soiling their feathers.

• Orange halves first. Cheap, visible from above, and the fastest way to catch a passing oriole’s eye. Replace every two days.
• One tablespoon of grape jelly in a shallow dish, refreshed daily. Skip it during heat waves when it liquefies.
• Nectar at 4 parts water to 1 part white sugar, no red dye, in a feeder with oriole-sized ports and a perch. Same recipe as our hummingbird nectar recipe.
• Hang it 6 to 10 feet up, within sight of tall trees. Placement is its own guide: where to hang an oriole feeder.

Which feeder style to buy, how much of each food, and the jelly welfare math are all in the oriole feeder guide. What orioles eat through the rest of the year is in what orioles eat.

How to tell this year’s orioles are close

The table gives you the typical week. Two free tools tell you what is happening this week.

1. eBird bar charts and the species page. The bar chart shows the long-term average for your state. The Baltimore Oriole page on eBird links to the live sightings map (a free eBird account is required for the map itself), where you can watch this year’s reports march north. When reports appear one state south of you, hang the orange.
2. Journey North’s annual cycle. The Baltimore Oriole annual cycle page lays out the month-by-month pattern: first birds reaching Texas in April, a few in the central states by the end of April, the northern states and provinces in May.

Two homegrown signals also work. Across the northern states, eBird shows Baltimore Orioles arriving the same week as Ruby-throated Hummingbirds or a week ahead of them (a week ahead in Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, and Iowa), while in Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Virginia the hummingbirds lead by a week or two. So if your first hummingbird has arrived, the oriole feeder should already be out; our hummingbird feeder timing guide has those dates. And Cornell describes the male’s rich, whistling song echoing from treetops as a herald of spring, so listen high in an oak or cottonwood before you look for orange.

Is it too late to put out oriole feeders?

Almost never in May. The first arrivals are a trickle; the main wave lands one to two weeks later and peaks in mid-May across the Midwest and Northeast, so a feeder that goes up in the first week of May still meets most of the birds. Fresh oranges are the best late opener, because they are visible from the canopy where new arrivals are foraging.

Midsummer is different. Pairs are nesting, and Cornell Lab notes that much of the summer diet is insects, which supply the protein nestlings need, so feeder visits drop even in yards that had orioles in May. eBird shows the dip clearly: in Michigan, the share of checklists with a Baltimore Oriole falls from 46 percent in mid-May to under 9 percent in late July, then climbs back to about 15 percent in mid-August. Do not read the summer lull as failure. Keep a small amount of jelly and fresh nectar out, and expect a second round in late July and August, when orioles turn back to sugary foods to build fat for the trip south.

When to take oriole feeders down (fall dates by region)

Take feeders down about two weeks after your last confirmed sighting. Journey North reports that Baltimore Oriole migration peaks in August and September and ebbs in the first half of October. A feeder left up a little late does no harm: Audubon notes that migration is triggered mainly by day length rather than food availability. The eBird fall data by region:

Before you store the feeder, scrub it: fermenting jelly and nectar in a fall feeder draw wasps and can sicken the late migrants you most want to help.

What to skip

• Waiting for your first sighting to put the feeder out. By then the first wave is already foraging elsewhere. The whole point of the table is to beat the bird by a week.
• A single national date. “Put it out May 1” is two to three weeks late in Kentucky and Missouri and right on time only in North Dakota and Montana. Use your state row.
• A jelly jar’s worth of jelly. Cornell Lab’s caution is specific: small amounts, so it cannot soil feathers. One tablespoon, refreshed daily.
• Red dye in nectar. The feeder’s orange color does the signaling; the liquid should be clear 4:1 sugar water.
• Taking feeders down on Labor Day everywhere. Gulf Coast and Mid-Atlantic yards still have orioles in late September, and Southeast yards may have them all winter.
• Judging the feeder in June. Nesting orioles eat insects. Judge it in mid-May and again in August.

FAQ

These answers are also marked up as FAQ structured data on the page.

What month do you put out oriole feeders? April for most of the country: April 8-14 in the lower Midwest and Upper South, April 15-21 across the central Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, lower Great Lakes, and southern New England, and April 22 to May 7 in the Upper Midwest and northern New England. The Gulf Coast is mid to late March, and California and Arizona are early to mid-March.

When should I put out oriole feeders in Wisconsin? By April 15-21. eBird shows the first Baltimore Orioles on Wisconsin checklists during April 22-30, the main arrival May 1-7, and the peak May 8-14.

When should I put grape jelly out for orioles? The same week the feeder goes out, one tablespoon at a time, refreshed daily. Cornell Lab warns against amounts large enough to soil feathers, and jelly should come in during heat waves.

Do orioles return to the same feeders every year? Often the same yard at about the same time of year, because the species returns to its breeding range on a predictable schedule. Whether it is the same individual bird is not something we can promise, so treat last year’s success as a reason to be early, not a guarantee.

Why do orioles quit coming to feeder? Usually the season. Cornell Lab documents the summer shift from sugar to insects while orioles feed nestlings, so visits drop in June and July and return in August. Stale jelly, fermented nectar, or a feeder moved out of sight of tall trees are the other common causes.

Is it too late to put out oriole feeders? Not in May. The main wave arrives one to two weeks after the first birds and peaks in mid-May in the north. Missed spring entirely? Try again in late July and August, when orioles return to jelly and nectar before migration.

When should you stop feeding orioles? About two weeks after your last fall sighting: mid to late September across the north, late August to mid-September in the Mountain West, mid to late October on the Gulf. In Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas, leave a feeder up for wintering birds.

What to do this week

Find your state in the tables above and write the put-out week on the calendar. A week before that date, hang an orange half and a shallow dish with a tablespoon of grape jelly 6 to 10 feet up within sight of your tallest trees, and fill an oriole nectar feeder with 4:1 sugar water. If you are reading this in fall, check the take-down table instead, clean the feeder, and store it for spring. The feeder styles, jelly rules, and species notes are in our oriole feeder guide; placement is in where to hang an oriole feeder.

Sources

• eBird (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), state and county bar charts, weekly frequency of Baltimore, Bullock’s, Orchard, and Hooded Orioles, all years through 2026, pulled September 2026 and re-checked October 2026. Example: Baltimore Oriole, Michigan. Change the state code after r=US- for your state.
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds: Baltimore Oriole Range Map and Migration (early April to late May arrival; departure as early as July; Florida among wintering grounds)
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds: Baltimore Oriole Life History (seasonal diet: nectar and fruit in spring and fall, insects in summer)
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds: Baltimore Oriole Overview (backyard tips: oranges, sugar water, small amounts of jelly)
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds: Bullock’s Oriole Overview, Orchard Oriole Overview, Hooded Oriole Overview
• Journey North: Baltimore Oriole Annual Cycle (mid-April to mid-May spring peak; August to September fall peak)
• National Audubon Society: The Audubon Guide to Attracting Hummingbirds and Orioles (oranges and jelly; migration triggered mainly by day length; some orioles winter where freezes are rare)