Turn An Old Rake Into A Bird Feeder And Watch Orioles Flock To Your Backyard

Orioles are gorgeous black and orange birds that can be found throughout the eastern United States. If you're looking to attract these unique birds to your yard, all you'll need is an old rake. As it turns out, orioles love to eat oranges and an old garden rake can be an easy way to serve them. Not only can the head of the rake hold the delicious fruit, but it also provides orioles with a place to perch while they peck at your oranges.

These feathered friends typically search out fruit in the spring, making the month of May a great time to start adding oranges to your bird feeding routine. You can even continue the practice throughout the summer if you want to attract more songbirds to your yard during those warmer months. This citrus fruit may also bring red-bellied woodpeckers, brown thrashers, northern mockingbirds, and scarlet tanagers to your feeder. When feeding fruit to birds, make sure to check on your feeder often. In warmer weather, oranges can grow mold rather quickly and start to dry out and no longer be a good food source for orioles. You'll also want to replace your oranges if an industrious group of ants happen to discover them.

There are a few ways to transform your rake and make a bird feeder out of an orange, but you always need to cut your oranges into pieces and stick them onto the spikes of the rake. You could choose to put fruit on each spike, or perhaps on every other spike to allow more spots for perching. One easy method is inserting the handle of the rake into the ground so that it is sturdy and simply adding the orange pieces from there. For a more complex feeder, you can remove the head of the rake and use staple nails to attach it to the top of a fence or to the side of a tree. If removing the head is too difficult, you might also use the handle to lean the rake against a fence, a tree, or another structure in your backyard.

While you could just use a regular old rake head, you'll want to make sure that it's clean first. You may also want to decorate it by implementing colors that will attract more birds to your garden. Orioles are orange birds that like to eat oranges, and they are also drawn to the color itself. You could try painting your rake orange to better catch the attention of your feathered friends and let them know your fruit buffet is open and ready for business.