 The show-boating Boat-Tailed Grackle. Quiscalus major ("Biggie Quail", more or less) eats pretty much everything, including snails, fast-food leftovers, frogs, seeds, lizards, fruits. They are noisy and gregarious, and their song sounds like a metallic cross between some determined chirping frogs and a toy buzz-saw.
The iridescent males do a lot of squawking while they try to defend their harems. And according to the Cornell Ornithology Lab, the "harem defense polygyny" is only about 25% effective for the males who think they are ruling the roost. Ironic, but not surprising.
4 Comments
Goldy
2/12/2017 09:16:18 am
Annoying birds!
Amy
2/12/2017 04:07:22 pm
They are part of the big clean-up crew, but I hear you!
and what do crows think of grackles ?
2/12/2017 08:43:39 pm
Easy to imagine that other types of birds have to run like heck when a mob of grackles comes around, but because they are so 'in your face', even with humans, and spend so much time loping around on their two legs, checking stuff out and yakking, I must confess I'm guilty of laughing out loud whilst watching them for chunks of time.
Amy
2/14/2017 07:32:02 pm
Hey, "and what do...grackles?"| Leave a Reply. |
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