Great-tailed Grackle

Appearance

Males reach up to 43 cm, including a tail that is almost as long as the body, weigh 230 g, and are jet-black with a violet-blue iridescent sheen to the feathers. Females are significantly smaller at 33 cm, weigh 125 g, and are mainly brownish-black, with a pale brown throat and belly. This morphological difference between males and females of a species is known as sexual dimorphism.

The Great-tailed Grackle and Boat-tailed Grackle were once considered the same species. Some species of grackle, usually the Great-tailed, are confused with an American Crow when people unfamiliar with bird identification are asked to identify a dead blackbird. This usually occurs when birds need to be identified as candidates for West Nile virus.

Distribution

Its range stretches from Kansas in the northeast to southern California in the northwest down to northwest Peru and northwest Venezuela in the south; the grackle's range has been expanding north and west in recent years. It is common in Texas and Arizona in the southern regions. It is commonly found in agricultural regions and suburban environments, feeding on fruits, seeds, and invertebrates.

Behavior

This bird has a large variety of raucous, cacophonous calls, some very melodic, but is considered to be a noisy pest species by some. Its range expansion has not been aided by human introduction.
The females can travel in flocks and they share food. When a male spots a female, he engages her by puffing up and gaping his mouth. He then proceeds to make loud calls and follow the female. The female will allow the large males to mate with her; she will usually reject smaller males. Before dawn and after sundown these birds often congregate in large numbers in a particular area, for example roofs and tree branches. There they sing and caw for long periods before taking wing simultaneously until the next congregation. Grackles are cunning and opportunistic birds and are a common sights in towns and hotels throughout Central America. The are omnivorous and brave, often approaching humans in search of scraps of food.