Baltimore Oriole

What a nice story. I hope he shows up again this year to visit you.

Thanks everyone for the kind words and comments.
Lauren Zarate, because you asked:
Sparky as he came to be known, showed up in my yard on December 12, 2012 and was last seen on January 11, 2013. That day was very warm for this time of year. I can not say with 100% certainty what happened to him. I will say what I believe to this day. I had 4 pair of cardinals that came to my feeders during that same period. January 11th was the last day I saw Sparky or the 4 pair of Northern Cardinal, I can only speculate, that they left for warmer climates. During his time with me, I built him a special leanto shelter and bought a special heat lamp. He used it during the coldest of days. After I had not seen him for 4 days, I took my shelter and heat lamp to another family who had another wayward bird in our area. They had a Summer Tanager, which they named Tanya. Tanya used the shelter and the heat lamp all winter long, and is the first known Summer Tanager to ever over winter in Wisconsin. I will put up a series about that bird sometime soon. Thanks so much for asking LaurenZarate.

Whatever happened to this bird? Wonderful series!

Stunning... very nice series..

Nice shot!

Great series!

YukoChartraw I will help you out by providing the link to my page.
It is as follows:

http://www.facebook.com/william.joers

Thank you! I will search for you on Facebook!

An update with new photos of this Baltimore Oriole in snow are at this following link:

http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/169...

Please note that although this photo looks stunning, and the bird appears to be in great health, he should not be where he is. I can only guess that he was unable to fly when he should have in the fall, and now that he can, he has no one to make the long journey with, and because of the cold temps, he dare not try, to expend that much energy now. More posts of him will follow but not daily.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I hope he will survive the cold winter in Wisconsin (he probably will under your care :) ) and be able to reunite with his group next spring/summer. :)

Thanks Yuko Chartraw, I consider myself blessed to be able to see and help feed this bird while he winters here. I will keep everyone posted. I post photos much more regularly to my facebook page should you use facebook and want to be added to my friends list there. I use my facebook page to post my wildlife photos and use it for that almost exclusively, with very little else ever posted there by me.

I can only make an educated guess as to why he did not make the trip south, and will give you my thoughts. Please know that I am no expert when it comes to birds however and my guess may be way off base. I am guessing he was not able to fly great distances at the time he should have made the flight. Perhaps he still can not fly great distances. He flies as well as a bird can for short distances. I have never seen him fly more then 60 yards ( 55 meters) as my lot is to heavily wooded to allow me to see him fly much farther then that. He appears to be in great health and appears to fly just fine. Perhaps that was not the case in the fall when he should have left. I see no signs of any damage to him and see no signs that lead me to believe he can not fly long distances now. Remember this is only my educated guess ( and not highly when it comes to this)

You're so lucky! I'm looking forward to more spottings of this beautiful bird to come. :) BTW, do you know why he is wintering in your area rather than his usual & warmer destination?

Thank you YukoChartraw, yes I was able to get some pretty nice captures of him in the snow. He has become a regular at my feeding station, and may stay until at least the start of 2013, I will try to keep him well stocked up with food should he decide to spend the winter in my little part of the world.

Lovely capture! And you DID get some captures of him with snow. That was so very beautiful as well!

Thanks for the great comment Nuwan, I hope that, should he hang around, I can get some captures of him with snow. That would make this very rare sighting even that much more grand.

great capture!

Thanks Adarsha B S, KarenL and BrendaHoffman324 I love his color as well, and love the fact he is here when he should be in some much warmer place.

SO pretty!

Beautiful!

Thanks for making this one of your favorites, Marta RubioTexeira, and Fln Kynd