When we place the adjective "common" before a noun it reduces that noun to grayness, to the word boring, to something we know too much about. I think that is so unfair to the "Common Grackle." They are certainly adaptable, and that should be their adjective. According to Cornell, their habitat includes "woodland, forest edge, grassland, meadows, swamps, marshes, and palmetto hammocks. They are also very common near agricultural fields and feedlots, suburbs, city parks, cemeteries, pine plantations, and hedgerows". I have even seen them in garbage dumps!
The photo above was taken through a window, so not as crisp as it should be. In my yard, they come first as ones and twos and then in bunches of 20. It is hard for me to tell them from the Boat-tailed Grackle, but that second bird above seems to have a very large tail like the Boat-Tail. They eat grains, seeds, and insects, a healthy and varied diet. The male is the one with the beautiful blues and purples. The female is the one who can't make up her mind on a place to nest.
They flock with other birds likes crows and cowbirds and I guess that is why they are hard to identify. I don't know who counted them, but there are supposed to be 61 million of them, with about 10% in Canada. "Familiarity breeds contempt"? Yes, they are noisy. These birds can look angry with that bold yellow eye and tiny center pupil, but they are not.
Note the use of the tail on the Grackle above as it totally wraps around the bottom of the feeder for balance. They are ground feeders by nature and find my feeders a stretch in their acrobatic flying.
THey do look angry. Common i suppose because there are so many and found so many places, but you are right about the use of that description.
ReplyDeleteWe only see grackles in the fall migration and then lots of them. The hang around for a few days and then are gone.
ReplyDeleteThese birds are uncommonly beautiful. So are your photos. We don't have grackles on the west coast.
ReplyDeleteCommon because they are everywhere, but each one an individual and nothing really common about them.
ReplyDeleteLove grackles, common or not! That does look like a boat tailed one..
ReplyDeleteThe best of Grackles, beautiful.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful birds. The sad thing is when the word 'common' is less used for our birds, as they decline and we count the numbers.
ReplyDeleteToward late winter/early spring, whole flocks of grackles and cowbirds swarm my feeders and the ground beneath them, demolishing seed at a great rate. I had grackles here last week while snow flurries danced in the wind. The contrast of white against those blue-black feathers was wonderful! Common they may be in the sense that they are numerous and familiar, but they are uncommonly beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI love grackles. They sweep across our lawns all the while talking and muttering. :)
ReplyDeletea huge group passed through here a few days ago, clacking and swooping from trees to ground.
ReplyDeleteTheir color is beautiful, but noisy as you say.
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