Educate Yourself About the Common Grackle and Its Habitat
Common Grackle
The Common Grackle has pale yellow eyes, long heavy, powerful beak, iridescent purple on head, deep bronze or dull purple on the back, larger body than of the robin, shorter wings than other grackles, and a long wedge-shaped or keel-shaped tail. Its length is 11-13in (28-34cm) Its wingspan is 17in (43cm) Its voice is a note of a “chuck” or “chack”; a split rasping note serves as a song. Their eggs are greenish white and scrawled and splotched with dark purples and browns, with usually 1 clutch consisting of 3-5 or (2-6) eggs. The female incubates for about 13-14 days, and fledging time is about 16-20 days. Both male and female feed their young. The female is smaller and less glossy.
The Common Grackle’s name is from the Latin word “graculus”, the European blackbird called “jackdaw”. Grackles are regal birds, and you can find them strutting about with their head held high, and their long tail sweeping the ground, like a train of a gown over your lawn. At a distance they may appear black, but if you get a chance to see one up close, they actually have an iridescent dull purple metallic plumage that is spectacular.
The Common Grackle is common indeed, around the east of the Rockies, they congregate in large flocks to feed or roost, except during nesting season. You can easily identify them by their tail feathers in a V, like a boat keel when in flight. You can find these large birds in feedlots and agricultural fields, but they use to be restricted to deciduous forests feeding on beechnuts, and acorns. In some areas the grackle is known to specialize in stealing food from robins, by waiting for the robin to extract a worm from the ground and then ruches over to snatch it away.
Their ritual of extracting the meaty insides, are by holding the nut in the base of its beak, and putting pressure on it until it cracks. Most of their diet is agricultural grains; they will also feed on a wide variety of different animal life such as small snakes, salamanders, crabs, snails, frogs, mice, and eggs of other birds. You can find them going to trash, and are even so bold the steal crayfish right out of large waterbirds, like the glossy Ibis beak
Unfortunately they will also hunt adult birds, such as House Sparrows, but you will be glad to know that grasshoppers, beetles, armyworms, and flies are on their menu as well.
The grackle often nests in large colonies consisting of dozens of birds, and they will locate their nests in tall conifers, in parks, in backyards, and also in maples, elms, different shrubs, and even in the base of an Osprey nest. The female will build a bulky, loosely constructed nest, in the shape of a cup that consists of twigs, stems and grasses. She will line the nest with feathers, paper, rags, fine grass, most anything soft she can find to make it extra cozy for new arrivals.
If you like to attract grackles to your lovely bird feeding garden, fill your hanging bird feeders and bird tables with cracked corn and slices of bread, (agricultural grains are not as nutritious). Dense conifers like the spruce, and other conifers, open spaces, usually near water, and even a small patch of grassy lawn will be sufficient for the grackle to come visit.
Other grackles are the Boat-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus major) witch is common in the Southeast and along the eastern Gulf coast with a wingspan of close to two feet. There is also the Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus) witch can be found in Texas and in the southwest and has a very slender and long tail.
