The Grackle
By Mike • March 9, 2009 • 18 commentsThe grackle is the ultimate American bird, adaptable, intrepid, and obstreperous. Ten species of these iridescent ebon irritants, most in the genus Quiscalus, are distributed throughout the New World. The banner blackbird of most of Mesoamerica as well as much of the southwestern United States is the Great-tailed Grackle. In fact, this aggressive avian ambassador is usually the first bird a visitor encounters, often right outside the airport!
Ogden Nash wrote a particularly apt ode to this intelligent, elegant, irksome icterid titled simply The Grackle…
The grackle’s voice is less than mellow,
His heart is black, his eye is yellow,
He bullies more attractive birds
With hoodlum deeds and vulgar words,
And should a human interfere,
Attacks that human in the rear.
I cannot help but deem the grackle
An ornithological debacle.
If you’ve ever traveled the temperate or tropical parts of the Americas, you’ve met the grackle. You probably also have an opinion about it. Frankly I love them, especially since I just spotted my first Common Grackles of spring. Have you written about a species of grackle or captured a photo that does this dashing dastard justice? If so, show us your grackles!
Here are some great grackle links submitted by readers:
If you have a particularly entertaining or egregious grackle tale, feel free to share it in the comments.
Have you seen the cool 10,000 Birds t-shirts? Get yours today!
Great-tailed Grackles are entertaining but can get rough when you have to sleep with them outside your house. At 5:00 AM they start with those explosive whistles, bizarre scraping sounds, noises that sound like they came from an emergency vehicle, etc. They have quite a repertoire. And anyone who has heard a big roost in the evening knows it can be almost deafening!
It was my first lifer when I first visited Honduras in 2006, right outside the airport just after I picked up my bags.
I once wrote about Great-tailed Grackles: “And there’s something else about them too: They’re scrappy enough to play our games. … [T]he grackles thrive in our most miserable places, warily edging around pedestrians to pick at grimy bits of starch that somebody ground into the pavement. They seem right at home on our power lines and highway signs, and they treat light poles as stages built just for them. At night, they gather in hundreds or thousands, blackening trees and creating a din.”
True, I’ve never had to sleep near a roost, but I’m basically rooting for the grackles.
I’m working on a blog post now about the recent evidence showing that Great-tailed Grackle should be split into two species.
Also, the Ogden Nash poem is cute, but doesn’t his meter fall apart on “An ornithological debacle”? Hmm, I guess it does work, with some creative syllable stressing: an OR-ni-THO-lo-GI-cal DEB-acle. Maybe that’s part of the joke. I’m sorry I doubted you, Mr. Nash!
Best poem ever! I just added my favorite picture of a grackle foraging along a creek in Ithaca, NY. Grackles are definitely one of the first and last birds I’ve seen in all of my neotropical travels - Great-tails in Mexico and Costa Rica, Carib in Venezuela.
Last year I saw a grackle attack and kill a sparrow at my backyard feeder. I didn’t notice if the sparrow did anything to provoke it, but the grackle was determined to kill it and have some meat to go with his seed. I was very surprised. A quick search of the internet revealed this does happen occasionally, so it was a rare, but not unique, event.
[...] at 10000 Birds has a nice post celebrating grackles today. It seems that this weekend he also saw his first Common Grackles for the [...]
I added a link to an old post with shots of a juvenile being fed by an adult.
The Common Grackles made their first spring visit to my yard yesterday, which was nice since it was feederwatch count day for me. I posted the pictures from yesterday. Those are here for anyone who may be interested.
Great poem, too.
As annoying as they are, they really are photogenic… in a creeps-me-out kind of way! Here’s the shot I entered:
http://myavianfriends.blogspot.com/2008/04/head-shot.html
And another for your amusement:
http://myavianfriends.blogspot.com/2008/03/theyre-back-alright.html
The grackles arrived here (Chicago) a few days ago - I must say, after the winter we’ve had, I was glad to see them! Those eyes… eek!
Mr. Linky doesn’t appear to work on my crappy IE6 work computer.
I did post about my annual grackle invasion yesterday: http://www.hawkowlsnest.com/2009/03/purple-headed-grackle.html
Here are a few of my shots. They are remarkable intelligent birds, noisy birds. I’m glad they’re back to Chicago
what a lovely site, thank you! i was reading the comments here, and had no idea that a grackle would harm a sparrow. i like to watch the grackles sqeeze into a little bowl feeder fastened on a fence for the sparrows [by their bushes]. there are several other feeders, and the sparrows, grackles, red-winged black birds, blue and gray jays, crows, and starlings all seem to get on well!
happy birding!
For the past few months I have had a number of grackles in my yard - with no problem mixing with the other birds (lots of sparrows, cardinals and doves). Since then, I have recently witnessed a grackle kill a sparrow at my backyard feeder. I have found 3 more dead sparrows in the span of about 1 week. Can anyone suggest something to prevent this from happening? Is it a time of the year issue (nesting, etc)? I enjoy watching all kinds of birds at the feeder…even the suddenly aggressive grackles and would like to come up with a peaceful solution.
Thank you!
Grackles on the Feeder road between Kirkwood and Dairy Ashford south of the I10 in Houston are AGGRESIVE!! to humans. For the last two weeks while on my early morning run (June 2009) I have been attacked from behind by a grackle. It swoops in at high speed and clips my head with its wings and claws. Attacks are repeated and virtually continuous over a 300 yard stretch of road. It has not yet drawn blood, but it is only a matter of time.
Marie. I have the same problem. I cut back on the seed thinking it would attract less grackles. I came home yesterday to 4 dead sparrows, all headless. Yikes. Anyone have a solution or is it just nature?
We have found a two “Headless” sparrows as well. We also witness Grackle killing and eating one of them in our backyard. We have had our bird feeders for 9 years in Oshawa, and it’s our first year of this happening with headless sparrows.
Living in Las Vegas, the great tail grackle has settled in over the past few years. They seem to prefer pine trees as nesting sites. noisy enough with whistles and cracking sounds. Inventive enough in foraging, such as eating pomegranates and pistachio nuts right off the tree. Actually, they knock the pistachios to the ground, pop off the outer hull, then get into the nut, all without hands!
They are a very intelligent bird, and have enough of a language to be able to warn the chicks of impending danger, even calling out certain phrases that mean hide, move, fly up, fly down. I placed a mirror near the watering hole, and the grackles are self aware and primp or clean theirselves while looking in the mirror, totally unlike a dog that only sees a challenger. At first, I thought the black grackle was some sort of crow, but leaving out shiny things they wouldn’t take away.
No offense, but like so many mexicans coming north to los estados unidos, the great tail grackles also has its origins in Mexico, and they too, are making their way north. I could only wonder if they could be taught to talk; and then, what woulod the conversation be?
check out this website for more commentary and history:
http://creagrus.home.montereybay.com/grackles.html
http://poetrynest.blogspot.com/2010/01/story-about-grackle.html