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Common, Boat and Great Tailed Grackles



Male Grackles have black plumage with a green, purple, or bronze metallic
luster. Females are smaller and duller in color.

Grackles are large blackbirds with long, wedge shaped tails.
Grackles often gather in large flocks.



The most abundant member of the grackle family is the common grackle,
which breeds east of the Rocky Mountains from Canada to Florida,
commonly found on farmlands. They flock with cowbirds, red winged
blackbirds and starlings.

Adult males are about 13 in long, of which the tail accounts for
1/3. Females are slightly smaller and, unlike other female grackles,
are similar in color to males, but less glossy.

Common grackles build their nests from mud and coarse grasses,
lined with finer grass. They nest in colonies, often in coniferous
trees, sometimes in brushes. They lay 3 to 7 bluish white eggs,
speckled and spotted brown to black.

Common grackles feed on grains, wild seeds, some fruit and some
insects.


Two larger species occur in the southern United States. The great tailed
grackle ranges from the southwestern United States south to the coasts
of Venezuela and northern Peru.


The boat tailed grackle is confined to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts
from New York to Texas. Although generally similar in appearance,
their voices and courtship behavior are quite different. In both
species the tails are proportionately even longer than in the common
grackle, and the males are much larger than the brownish females.

Picture Grackle



Grackles belong to the family of blackbirds and the order Passeriformes.

Types of Grackles include:

Boat Tailed Grackle
Brown Headed Grackle
Bronzed Grackle
Common Grackle
Great Tailed Grackle


Other members of the blackbird family include
Bobolinks
Blackbirds
Cowbirds
Meadowlarks
Orioles

Index of All Perching Birds



Stuffed Plush Birds

Grackle and Bird Calendars