Is method chaining order significant in query builder?

SQL doesn't read minds. The query is executed as written.

a AND b OR c === (a + b) OR c
b OR c AND a === b OR (c + a)

The fact that your query works in one case but fails in another only means that you don't have enough data.

You need to group conditions. a AND (b OR c)

PHP Code:

->groupStart()
   ->like('birthday', '-03-')
   ->orLike('birthday', '-04-')
->groupEnd()
->where('active', 1) 


Or an alternative for SQLite (if the table field is in date format)

PHP Code:

->whereIn('strftime(%m, birthday)', [3, 4], false)
->where('active', 1)