I took an animal behavior class and my teacher had a PHD in Ornithology. I learned all grackles do a head display to show dominance/submissiveness. When they meet up, they all hold their heads up and the longer they keep their head up, the higher ranking they have. Once I learned this, I always watched the common grackles in my area and sure enough, they always do this!
Nice to know, that's right next door. In Cedar Hill, TX there is a Starbucks where they gather in the morning. I intentionally go to that one because I love seeing and listening to them.
Yeah, they have a thing for Kroger and HEB parking lots, not sure why though. Sure, grocery stores have food, but do the Grackles know that? Maybe they follow the produce trucks?!
If grackles dominating feeders is a problem for you, I find that having multiple feeders has worked for me. I fill one with about 80% cracked corn/20% sunflower seeds - this is for the grackles and the starlings. Then I fill another, smaller feeder with 50% black oil sunflower, 40% finch blend (millet and other tiny seeds), and 10% safflower. The grackles go for the corn and any sunflower seeds that end up on the ground, and the starlings ignore the seeds because their beaks aren't really made to shell them. As a bonus, if you buy your cracked corn from a feed mill or farm supply store in 50lb bags, it's way cheaper than if you buy the little bags sold for birds. ;) So I get to enjoy watching grackles without them hassling any of the little songbirds or spilling seeds they don't even want to eat.
I absolutely love grackles and their sounds and watching them roam around parking lots like iridescent dinosaurs and knowing they do millions of dollars worth of damage makes me smile
We feed all kinds of birds here in upstate NY. In late Spring or early summer, the Grackle hatchlings stand on small piles of freeze-dried mealworms as they scream for adults to feed them. The adults feed them at first, then ignore them after which the young ones turn into police car sirens. Amazing. After bugs fully come out, we withdraw the mealworms. The young need to learn to forage.
In the summer, the insects from the gutters get pretty uncontrollable. They eat the cockroaches in my neighborhood, so I love them for that. Also their sounds are incredible!
I like to catcall the grackles with the most magnificent tails in the parking lots in Houston 😂 Sometimes grackles are huge and it’s really something to see a big glossy one strutting around looking majestic! 🎉
A few years ago I bonded with a murder of crows and since then I’ve been obsessed with birds. About a year or so ago I found an abandoned chick that I thought/hoped was a crow but it was a grackle. I raised her until her feathers grew and she was able to forage live insects. She was so good, she learned to fly to me with a snap, or she could walk by my side in the house 😅I felt she needed a natural life so I released her ❤ miss you, Midnight ❤
Wtf?! You released her into the wild while knowing full well that she didn’t have a flock to stay with for protection?!? And without knowing if she had the skills to forage for anything more than insects for food - insects do not consist of many calories (not to mention, without a flock to have taught her what insects are poisonous, as well as what other animals and plants to avoid because of lethality, she’d have no idea!). Be honest: You just got tired of the responsibility you took on, and didn’t want to make the long-term commitment to care for a bird raised in captivity by a human. There’s no way that bird survived for long because it wasn’t raised by a flock or released with a flock. You should have brought that abandoned chick to a wildlife rescue organization, as _THEY_ know what they’re doing. _YOU_ did not!
@@anti-ethniccleansing465 this is fair. Like I said this was years ago, I’m much more informed now than I was but this is a lil much. For one, I was completely committed to keeping that bird, it’s just that my housing situation and work schedule made it difficult to provide all of her needs. Secondly, yes I should have taken her to a rehabilitation center, but I did a lot of research on the species and its ecology as it relates to my areas population, I had taken her outside in that location multiple times to acclimate her to the area. And yes, I’m not an expert, but in comparison to the average Joe I might as well be. I have a relationship with multiple flocks of birds in my area, and I watch them, interact with them, and honestly prefer them to most of the people I know. So really my only error was that I should’ve called a shelter for her.
Great-tailed Grackles are one of my most favorite birds! Their resourcefulness, ability to thrive in urban environments, and robust personality won me over years ago. It's a wonder to me that people can ignore them despite being surrounded by them and their charming shenanigans!
they are such beautiful birds, needless to say. i love the crazed look in their pale eyes, the proud struts with their heads held high, when they go "CHUK!" (and if i had one for a pet, id name him Chuck for that reason) i can keep listing reasons why i find them charming birds. dont want them to bully my smaller birdies away from my yard though, chickadees gotta eat too. when i have one near i always say "Hey, Grackle!", in the small chance they learn that they are called 'grackle', its such an endearing name for an endearing bird.
This feels like a middle school educational video the teacher would show to explain something in detail, in the best possible way. No idea how I got lucky enough to stumble upon your channel, but thank you so much! I love how this video is done!
I used to live in Texas, where the great-tailed grackles are EVERYwhere. They are actually crazy smart. Once I saw one (a female) go up to a dog food dish, pick up a pellet of dog food that was too big to get in its mouth, drop it in the dog's water, wait a few moments, then pick it up out of the water when it was soggy enough and swallow it down. It seems like it has to be able to learn from experience and generalize that to new situations in a problem-solving setting. That comes in handy since in the bird book under "diet" it says: "Almost anything edible"!
That's so interesting! Birds in general are a lot smarter than we tend to expect. The neurons in their brains are packed twice as densely as ours, it's really quite amazing. I've been really happy getting to know the common grackles around us, and find them surprisingly friendly, despite their well-earned tough reputation.
The common grackles up here in PA are pretty clever, I put out shelled peanuts occasionally and this one grackle always drops them in the birdbath to soften up. The other grackles and jays grab a peanut and fly away at full speed, but that one bird is obsessed with softening up it's food.
I raise two half-dead baby grackles back in 2018. I had them for 30 days, taught them to hunt for food, fly, bathe, and seek shelter. When they flew away one day, I was so lonely . I hope they are in a flock, raising babies and happy!
I saw a male common grackle in a creek bed with a ray of sunshine illuminating it through the trees, and it was one of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen in person! That blue head just blew me away!
The royal purple wings/tail with teal heads on the east coast ones are also spectacular, such a variety of patterns too! They're like flying gemstones.
i'm north texan, and even though i understand why people see grackles as pests, i just can't disagree more 🥺 watching clouds of them dance around parking lots and cover telephone wires is always my favorite part of going grocery shopping. they always look like they have such rich lives!
I’m in south Texas, we have tons of them, as well. I love the sounds they make, and the way the sun lights up their colorful feathers. Seeing the posturing is also amusing. I didn’t realize they were considered pests, but now I think I know what happened to my tomatoes.
Often wonder what they're saying to one another. Clearly they are busy communicating because they have a lot to say to each other!!! (maybe they are bird politicians!) 🤭
Ive got 3 nestlings in my rescue and they are very much like little dinosaur hatchlings! Im not spamming because this is educational so visit my channel to watch the babies grow into adult grackles. I love the information!
I used to live along the east coast where we had boat tailed grackles on all the beaches, and now live in an area with lots of common grackles that congregate in a specific tree outside my work. Both subspecies are so beautiful and derpy. I live the common’s “rusty gate” call lol.
Moved to Florida and noticed the beautiful boat tailed grackles are everywhere.I feed them at lunch in the publix parking lot and will have 50-60 of them all around me.
Thank you for the informative video! I like grackles; they're beautiful birds with those stunning irridescent feathers. Their range of vocalizations is amazing too. They thrive because human civilization creates a wealth of opportunities for them, and they're smart enough to take advantage...so they're not much different from us... 😊
Last year, As I starting feed birds in general, I never saw one. But this Spring, they come by and yes. They are bullies. But I do find them fascinating in how they act. Especially when strut / walking with their beeks pointing straight upwards. I am enjoying this look into bird Watching.
We don't have Grackles in the Pacific Northwest. I do see them when I go to Southern California though. Great video as always. I learn something every time I watch your videos.
I also live in the pacific NW, so I had never heard of grackles until I visited Guatemala. They were all over the place and the sounds they make are so cool.
Grew up in the PNW and had never encountered them until we moved to the upper Great Lakes and all of a sudden there were masses of them descending on our feeders and bullying the songbirds. Even our local hawks wouldn’t have anything to do with them. It genuinely feels like scenes from Hitchcock when they’re here. As pretty as they are, and as interesting as their call and antics can be, I’m not a fan. I’d rather the crows any day.
Grackles are cool. Here in California, we have the Great-tailed Grackle. They are indeed interesting especially their calls. We also have Brewer's Blackbirds which behave like miniature grackles. In fact many birders who move here from back east mistake the Brewer's Blackbird for the Common Grackle.
We love grackles, they've got alot of "personality " and they're smart,I like to consider them to join the corvid family, (they sure act alot like them),I've watched them in the wild, they're fun and interesting,especially the males,cocky and boisterous,even menacing during mating season, I've seen them eat everything, scavengers, opportunists,I've taken a liking to them 🤓
The boat-tailed grackles in Florida have pretty much taken over the parking lots and gas stations. They make the sound of closing car doors. It’s amusing!
this was super interesting! I’m from Puerto Rico, where we call Greater Antillean Grackles “Changos”. The word Chango means ‘whiny’, or ‘needy’ in reference to how they always seem to be complaining about something with their noises. They’re really funny to watch lmao.
Where I live, grackles (mostly bronze and great-tailed) congregate in parking lots, looking for things people dropped. It's hilarious. I love those guys.
They are really cool if you don't live near a lot of them, But your opinion changes pretty fast when you're running errands and the only thing you can see or hear is TENS OF THOUSANDS OF GRACKLES. They will literally drown out the sound of traffic with how loud they are in groups that large.
We have lots of great-tailed grackles where I live, and you can almost always hear them making the rusty gate sound, or the "weeee-deee-deee" song. I like them.
I love these birds. They can be as common as pigeons and way more brazen about taking food from you (i've had one literally dive bomb food off my plate as I was eating), but god damn are they pretty when they are healthy and are so clever. I cant help but respect them.
About a month ago I saw what my friend identified as a boat tailed grackcle...it seemed larger and its head and legs were black but the rest of its body was a vibrant blue..it was remarkable. It was chatty and I got 2 close up photos.👍
I call them gangsters!!! They bough up and spread their tails in a flash of dominance. The morning doves dont care, they are also smart, they tilt my feeder and spill it out for their buddies. Gangsters.😅
I now have many grackles coming to my country property here in central Ontario, Canada. Where they nest and keep me poor filling the bird feeder every day. I built a large platform type feeder attached to the kitchen window with a two way mirror. This feeder is large enough (4ft X 3ft) that I still get all of my usual birds from small chick a Dees to blue jays, Cardinals, Doves, etc . all eating together with the Grackles and everyone is happy. ALL animals need our love. Thanks for the video. Ron S
Grackles are the Hell’s Angels of the bird world, and I dread mid March when they come roaring back to town. When they show up in the hundreds of thousands, they generate a headache inducing racket (and endless amounts of droppings under their roosts). In my area (Kansas) they are especially obnoxious pests that congregate around parking lots to pick bugs from vehicles (and steal unguarded groceries in the back of pickup trucks). They are entertaining and beautiful birds, but not when they’re in such high numbers.
I lived in KS for a while and the grackles were a problem there. They outnumbered other species and would get together in large numbers to squawk loudly from the trees outside the house. I don’t see many where I live now and figure fewer is a good thing when it comes to grackles.
@@robertjones8598 they tend to roost in the trees in the parking lot around Walmart, and it’s absolute mayhem. There are hundreds of thousands of them, and the racket (and the poop, and the smell) is unbelievable. Everything under the trees is coated with guano, and vehicles quickly get whitewashed with grackle droppings. They yell all night long and fly around constantly, so it’s headache inducing for everyone that works there.
THey're a nice friendly face in every single parking lot. I enjoy feeding them watermelon and lil healthy treats when I think to have some on me. I like trying to imitate some of their sounds. The quick clicking one tends to be "Gather/food" I think. Either way. Love them.
Maybe. Not a grackle tale, but there is a mockingbird in my yard that imitates a car alarm. Really confused me for minute when I heard a car alarm going off in a tree.
The grackles do a pretty good job of combing my lawn for pests and sometimes cleaning out my gutters looking for bugs and sprouted seeds. They are OK in my book. I just make sure I feed safflower in my feeders since that is not preferred by them but a lot of the other songbirds like it.
My Mom raised a common Grackle that had fallen or was taken out of the nest and left on the road. They were even featured on “ BoomTown” critter corner ‘s Rex Trailers TV Show …sponsored by the MSPCA to help educate. They are wonderful creatures and I fondly remember our little Blackie when I see them …
For 3 years, I've been trying to "make friends" with crows in the area. So far, I've attracted squirrels and, just recently, a grackle. At least I have the right color and species, now!! 😂
My Grackles steal my dogs kibble, and they eat baby sparrow hatchlings. They bring them to my dogs water bowl and leave half the carcass in it, yuck...
I like Grackles. I find them to be very smart and curious birds. Every winter I look forward to hearing the noisy flocks of Common Grackles begin to return here in CT, marking spring is right around the corner.
Uh, yeah, Grackles are Great! Unless and until you find yourself in the midst of millions of them at Dusk, perched side by side and end to end of every branch, power line, and fence, all screaming and carrying on like Freshman at Spring Break and your mind keeps wandering to the classic Hitchcock movie "The Birds". Then they are still great, just annoyingly, freakishly so.
We get Boat Tailed Grackles from late May until about August here in south central Wisconsin, in my sleepy town. Over the years I have befriended a few and look forward to their visit every summer. It took years of trial and error with me just trying to copy their calls. I think they find it funny and we spend a lot of time going back and forth while I try to sound as cool as them!
We have a family group for neighbors in the summer, they're here nesting now. I put out a small dish of soaked kibble every morning and they know it's for them. Quite interesting animals! They don't figure things out easily on their own, but they can watch other birds (eg: jays) and copy solutions brilliantly.
everyone in Texas is always like "them crows" when talking about grackles and as much as I hate to sound like a know it all...I kindly educate them of the differences lol
Sadly, I've not seen many grackles in the past 3 years or so. They used to be very plentiful, though they rarely dominated the feeders. Instead they'd scavenge what's dropped on the ground from other birds. The blue jays have also disappeared almost completely the last 3 years as well. I saw and heard one small family of them just last month. I was so surprised, but then found a dead one in my front yard. That was pretty upsetting. I live on the Mid-Atlantic coast and read that the abrupt population decline was possibly from them eating pesticide-tainted cicadas, though I live in an area where only the yearly cicadas emerge and not the cyclical ones due to the sandy soil. So I'm not sure what's going on. Not the nicest sounding birds, but they're still pretty to look at. I miss them and I hope they rebound soon and stay healthy.
Grackles sure are beautiful; but be careful when they’re raising their hatchlings. I’ve been attacked by a couple of them when I unknowingly got too close to a tree in which they had a nest.
I have a bird feeder & a Grackle chased away a Hawk, protecting the other birds. It was awesome. I'd never seen a smaller bird chase a Hawk.😂 The Hawk hid in a tree so it worked.
I remember them raiding the whole foods in Austin. Flying in and out of the store and snatching food from customers. They're here in California but they're sparse and can typically be found with the red shoulder and other black birds. I enjoy their tenacity.
I first encountered these birds in the Conroe-Houston, TX area a couple years ago in a mall parking lot. They reminded me of a cross between a crow and a chicken at the time as they flew and then scurried under cars, making all sorts of noises I hadn't heard before. I'm guessing I saw great-tailed ones because while I don't remember how big the tails were, I remember them being pretty distinctive. Eastern Tennessee has the common grackles, but there doesn't seem to be as many as elsewhere. We also have a few black vultures, which I also first saw en masse in Texas.
I've been calling them "walmart wallows" (walmart swallows didnt have the same silly ring to it as walmart wallows) for years now because I had no idea what they were lol. Love these guys, I keep a bag of expired unsalted trail mix in my car to toss to them when I see them. They are such characters!
Common grackles have been nesting in the dense top of my arborvitae for many years. I witnessed a squabble for nesting rites early this Spring. Though the nest is fully concealed, I know the eggs have hatched when I see adults removing white fecal sacs from the nest. There should be fledglings in a couple of weeks.
They are a pest for me. I have four citrus trees, and the grackles will destroy every single fruit if I don't cover them with insect netting. I built a trap for them one year and caught a bunch. They are absolutely delicious, on par with doves. They are extremely smart though. They wised up to the trap after only one year. They started harassing the crawfish farmers here as well. They land on the sacks of crawfish and kill the crawfish inside.
I once saw a great tailed grackle that was leucistic, with the whole bird being a pale brown, almost white. It was a male. It didn't seem to have any difficulty interacting with the others, due to it's appearance.
Some where in the early 2000s , i was astounded to hear a incredible racket. A huge flock of Grackles. In the trees in our front. They hung out for a hour or so. And flew. The only strange thing this was in Southern Oregon. i was sure by their tails.i was hoping they would stay around. But that one sighting was it.
I wish I could see the beauty of these birds for what it is. We just see them as invaders where I’m from. You see them more often than the state bird, and that’s because grackles have driven them away as urbanization extends beyond city limits
Thanks for the video and I really do like watching these beautiful birds they are intelligent and I like when they chase the squirrels to keep them away from their nesting area
Love grackles! Feel like not enough people take the chance to appreciate their beauty. People seem to view them as a pest similar to pigeons, at least where I’m from.
I have been under appreciative of grackles, thinking of them mainly as pests. I need to pay more attention to them, watch their antics and listen for more variety in their song. Most of this info was new to me. Nice video.
Live in Texas and they hang out in droves in grocery store parking lots looking for trash, the more industrial sight, the more of these birds. Overbred and taking over other birds nests.
Great-tailed are one of the most common birds here in Phoenix. They love ficus nitida trees and get really rowdy in them at twilight. The males have such a funny call that builds up to a single high-pitched note, really entertaining to watch.
I’m in Phoenix too, but don’t get to see them often around my neighborhood. 😢 (central Phoenix) But sometimes a small group of them will hang out in the tree next door and I love going out to watch them. When I lived in Dallas, there were THOUSANDS of them. 😃
I feel like you missed out on some of the boat-tailed grackles iconic calls. When they're displaying to females or to other males they make some crazy sounds. Here in South Florida, boat-tailed grackles are everywhere and they're so much fun to watch due to their confident attitude in comparison to the shyer jays and doves. I love watching them strut along the parking stones like it's a runway. Great video
I didn't know much about these incredible birds until I went on a trip to Florida. I was instantly captivated by their cheekiness and guile. They are also just so gorgeous.
I took an animal behavior class and my teacher had a PHD in Ornithology. I learned all grackles do a head display to show dominance/submissiveness. When they meet up, they all hold their heads up and the longer they keep their head up, the higher ranking they have. Once I learned this, I always watched the common grackles in my area and sure enough, they always do this!
Thank you for sharing that!
they are such a riot when they're doing this
I KNEW that's what it was, it looks so silly
I’ve seen them do this while making their calls, and I had no idea why
Growing up I always wondered why they did that!! I’d see them gather in a circle under a tree, thought it was very bizarre lol. Now I know!
"The Kroger parking lot in Mansfield Texas in October, You know that's the spot." - 5 billion grackles
They like peanuts 😊
I remember a thick flock of them flying north during the spring, except it didn't stop for days. 5 billion isn't an exaggeration.
Nice to know, that's right next door. In Cedar Hill, TX there is a Starbucks where they gather in the morning. I intentionally go to that one because I love seeing and listening to them.
Yeah, they have a thing for Kroger and HEB parking lots, not sure why though. Sure, grocery stores have food, but do the Grackles know that? Maybe they follow the produce trucks?!
@@non-influential I believe it, 5 billion is just about right to divide up and cover all the grocery stores in Texas!
Love grackles! I call these the “Walmart parking lot, French-fry eating birds”
I’ve always called them “Walmart birds” too. lol
Wow, I thought only my local Walmart had Grackels.
@@MrDDiRussosame 😂
Good naming 😂
My wife and I call them "French fry birds" and yes, most commonly seen in Walmart parking lots here in Oklahoma, lol.
If grackles dominating feeders is a problem for you, I find that having multiple feeders has worked for me. I fill one with about 80% cracked corn/20% sunflower seeds - this is for the grackles and the starlings. Then I fill another, smaller feeder with 50% black oil sunflower, 40% finch blend (millet and other tiny seeds), and 10% safflower. The grackles go for the corn and any sunflower seeds that end up on the ground, and the starlings ignore the seeds because their beaks aren't really made to shell them. As a bonus, if you buy your cracked corn from a feed mill or farm supply store in 50lb bags, it's way cheaper than if you buy the little bags sold for birds. ;) So I get to enjoy watching grackles without them hassling any of the little songbirds or spilling seeds they don't even want to eat.
Thank you for explaining that!
I’m absolutely going to try this. I love my grackles, but they do dominate. Thanks so much for suggesting this. Makes perfect sense.
I absolutely love grackles and their sounds and watching them roam around parking lots like iridescent dinosaurs and knowing they do millions of dollars worth of damage makes me smile
I love grackles. They’re silly and entertaining.
We feed all kinds of birds here in upstate NY. In late Spring or early summer, the Grackle hatchlings stand on small piles of freeze-dried mealworms as they scream for adults to feed them. The adults feed them at first, then ignore them after which the young ones turn into police car sirens. Amazing. After bugs fully come out, we withdraw the mealworms. The young need to learn to forage.
In the summer, the insects from the gutters get pretty uncontrollable. They eat the cockroaches in my neighborhood, so I love them for that. Also their sounds are incredible!
I like to catcall the grackles with the most magnificent tails in the parking lots in Houston 😂 Sometimes grackles are huge and it’s really something to see a big glossy one strutting around looking majestic! 🎉
A few years ago I bonded with a murder of crows and since then I’ve been obsessed with birds. About a year or so ago I found an abandoned chick that I thought/hoped was a crow but it was a grackle. I raised her until her feathers grew and she was able to forage live insects. She was so good, she learned to fly to me with a snap, or she could walk by my side in the house 😅I felt she needed a natural life so I released her ❤ miss you, Midnight ❤
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Wtf?! You released her into the wild while knowing full well that she didn’t have a flock to stay with for protection?!? And without knowing if she had the skills to forage for anything more than insects for food - insects do not consist of many calories (not to mention, without a flock to have taught her what insects are poisonous, as well as what other animals and plants to avoid because of lethality, she’d have no idea!).
Be honest: You just got tired of the responsibility you took on, and didn’t want to make the long-term commitment to care for a bird raised in captivity by a human. There’s no way that bird survived for long because it wasn’t raised by a flock or released with a flock.
You should have brought that abandoned chick to a wildlife rescue organization, as _THEY_ know what they’re doing. _YOU_ did not!
@@anti-ethniccleansing465 this is fair. Like I said this was years ago, I’m much more informed now than I was but this is a lil much. For one, I was completely committed to keeping that bird, it’s just that my housing situation and work schedule made it difficult to provide all of her needs. Secondly, yes I should have taken her to a rehabilitation center, but I did a lot of research on the species and its ecology as it relates to my areas population, I had taken her outside in that location multiple times to acclimate her to the area. And yes, I’m not an expert, but in comparison to the average Joe I might as well be. I have a relationship with multiple flocks of birds in my area, and I watch them, interact with them, and honestly prefer them to most of the people I know. So really my only error was that I should’ve called a shelter for her.
@@anti-ethniccleansing465 exactally my thoughts as well, how irrisponceible. If you find a baby bird, call a wildlife rehab or rescue center.
@@anti-ethniccleansing465wow
Great-tailed Grackles are one of my most favorite birds! Their resourcefulness, ability to thrive in urban environments, and robust personality won me over years ago. It's a wonder to me that people can ignore them despite being surrounded by them and their charming shenanigans!
they are such beautiful birds, needless to say. i love the crazed look in their pale eyes, the proud struts with their heads held high, when they go "CHUK!" (and if i had one for a pet, id name him Chuck for that reason) i can keep listing reasons why i find them charming birds. dont want them to bully my smaller birdies away from my yard though, chickadees gotta eat too. when i have one near i always say "Hey, Grackle!", in the small chance they learn that they are called 'grackle', its such an endearing name for an endearing bird.
This feels like a middle school educational video the teacher would show to explain something in detail, in the best possible way. No idea how I got lucky enough to stumble upon your channel, but thank you so much! I love how this video is done!
I used to live in Texas, where the great-tailed grackles are EVERYwhere. They are actually crazy smart. Once I saw one (a female) go up to a dog food dish, pick up a pellet of dog food that was too big to get in its mouth, drop it in the dog's water, wait a few moments, then pick it up out of the water when it was soggy enough and swallow it down. It seems like it has to be able to learn from experience and generalize that to new situations in a problem-solving setting. That comes in handy since in the bird book under "diet" it says: "Almost anything edible"!
I used to live in TX too, and looooved the grackles! The number of them in the Dallas area was insane. One of my favorite birds.
That's so interesting! Birds in general are a lot smarter than we tend to expect. The neurons in their brains are packed twice as densely as ours, it's really quite amazing. I've been really happy getting to know the common grackles around us, and find them surprisingly friendly, despite their well-earned tough reputation.
The common grackles up here in PA are pretty clever, I put out shelled peanuts occasionally and this one grackle always drops them in the birdbath to soften up.
The other grackles and jays grab a peanut and fly away at full speed, but that one bird is obsessed with softening up it's food.
I did not realize when I moved from my native Texas 7 years ago that I was going to miss the great-tailed grackles and all their noise...
I raise two half-dead baby grackles back in 2018. I had them for 30 days, taught them to hunt for food, fly, bathe, and seek shelter. When they flew away one day, I was so lonely . I hope they are in a flock, raising babies and happy!
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I saw a male common grackle in a creek bed with a ray of sunshine illuminating it through the trees, and it was one of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen in person!
That blue head just blew me away!
I had the same experience couple of years ago in my neighborhood park’s creek bed. The blue head took me by surprise. I came home and looked them up.
The royal purple wings/tail with teal heads on the east coast ones are also spectacular, such a variety of patterns too! They're like flying gemstones.
i'm north texan, and even though i understand why people see grackles as pests, i just can't disagree more 🥺 watching clouds of them dance around parking lots and cover telephone wires is always my favorite part of going grocery shopping. they always look like they have such rich lives!
well they predate on all other birds, they are awful.
I never saw grackles before I moved to North Texas several years ago. They're one of my favorite birds now.
I’m in south Texas, we have tons of them, as well. I love the sounds they make, and the way the sun lights up their colorful feathers. Seeing the posturing is also amusing. I didn’t realize they were considered pests, but now I think I know what happened to my tomatoes.
same here 😊
@@Uncle_Neil many birds do this, it's a normal part of the ecosystem. That's how they live and our opinion on it doesn't matter.
Often wonder what they're saying to one another. Clearly they are busy communicating because they have a lot to say to each other!!! (maybe they are bird politicians!) 🤭
Grackles show up at my feeders every once in a while. It's interesting to see them somewhere other than a Walmart parking lot lol. 😂
When I moved to Texas, I didn't know what they were. I just thought of them as grocery store parking lot scavengers.
Grackles make me think of the prehistoric raptors that all birds evolved from, just smaller and with a beak without teeth
Naw, not the "prehistoric raptors evolving" nonsense, good grief 🙄
@susanjaeger9851 Birds *are* dinosaurs, Susan.
Ive got 3 nestlings in my rescue and they are very much like little dinosaur hatchlings! Im not spamming because this is educational so visit my channel to watch the babies grow into adult grackles. I love the information!
Dinosaurs aren't even real. All that masonic b.s.
I thought I was the only one? I think it’s their long tails, long snouts, and long legs
I live in the north east. I absolutely love grackles to me they are fun to watch at feeders. 🤗✌️😇🙏
Great-taule grackles were my favorite bird growing up. I now live in an area without them, but the common grackle is still a very cool and cute bird
I used to watch them when stuck on greeting duty as a lifeguard at the Venetian Hotel. I liked watching them socialize more than the pool attendants
I used to live along the east coast where we had boat tailed grackles on all the beaches, and now live in an area with lots of common grackles that congregate in a specific tree outside my work. Both subspecies are so beautiful and derpy. I live the common’s “rusty gate” call lol.
Moved to Florida and noticed the beautiful boat tailed grackles are everywhere.I feed them at lunch in the publix parking lot and will have 50-60 of them all around me.
I like them, but I just dislike when they try to bully other birds.
Ive got grackles that hang out where I work. I often end up giving them bits of my lunch when im on break.
Thank you for the informative video! I like grackles; they're beautiful birds with those stunning irridescent feathers. Their range of vocalizations is amazing too. They thrive because human civilization creates a wealth of opportunities for them, and they're smart enough to take advantage...so they're not much different from us... 😊
Last year, As I starting feed birds in general,
I never saw one.
But this Spring, they come by and yes.
They are bullies. But I do find them fascinating in how they act.
Especially when strut / walking with their beeks pointing straight upwards.
I am enjoying this look into bird Watching.
I love the sound they make! Very very different from other birds!
We don't have Grackles in the Pacific Northwest. I do see them when I go to Southern California though. Great video as always. I learn something every time I watch your videos.
Thank you so much! I'm happy to hear that!
I also live in the pacific NW, so I had never heard of grackles until I visited Guatemala. They were all over the place and the sounds they make are so cool.
I moved from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest and I miss grackles! I took them for granted 😭
Grew up in the PNW and had never encountered them until we moved to the upper Great Lakes and all of a sudden there were masses of them descending on our feeders and bullying the songbirds. Even our local hawks wouldn’t have anything to do with them. It genuinely feels like scenes from Hitchcock when they’re here. As pretty as they are, and as interesting as their call and antics can be, I’m not a fan. I’d rather the crows any day.
I love grackles they're so funny
Grackles are cool. Here in California, we have the Great-tailed Grackle. They are indeed interesting especially their calls. We also have Brewer's Blackbirds which behave like miniature grackles. In fact many birders who move here from back east mistake the Brewer's Blackbird for the Common Grackle.
I love grackles! Such misunderstood beautiful guys.
We love grackles, they've got alot of "personality " and they're smart,I like to consider them to join the corvid family, (they sure act alot like them),I've watched them in the wild, they're fun and interesting,especially the males,cocky and boisterous,even menacing during mating season, I've seen them eat everything, scavengers, opportunists,I've taken a liking to them 🤓
The boat-tailed grackles in Florida have pretty much taken over the parking lots and gas stations. They make the sound of closing car doors. It’s amusing!
this was super interesting! I’m from Puerto Rico, where we call Greater Antillean Grackles “Changos”. The word Chango means ‘whiny’, or ‘needy’ in reference to how they always seem to be complaining about something with their noises. They’re really funny to watch lmao.
Where I live, grackles (mostly bronze and great-tailed) congregate in parking lots, looking for things people dropped. It's hilarious. I love those guys.
They are really cool if you don't live near a lot of them, But your opinion changes pretty fast when you're running errands and the only thing you can see or hear is TENS OF THOUSANDS OF GRACKLES. They will literally drown out the sound of traffic with how loud they are in groups that large.
We have lots of great-tailed grackles where I live, and you can almost always hear them making the rusty gate sound, or the "weeee-deee-deee" song. I like them.
Here in Tucson they hunt big grasshoppers in packs.
I love these birds. They can be as common as pigeons and way more brazen about taking food from you (i've had one literally dive bomb food off my plate as I was eating), but god damn are they pretty when they are healthy and are so clever. I cant help but respect them.
About a month ago I saw what my friend identified
as a boat tailed grackcle...it seemed larger and
its head and legs were black but the rest of
its body was a vibrant blue..it was remarkable.
It was chatty and I got 2 close up photos.👍
I call them gangsters!!! They bough up and spread their tails in a flash of dominance. The morning doves dont care, they are also smart, they tilt my feeder and spill it out for their buddies. Gangsters.😅
they do form mobs haha
Grackle fan here. ❤😂
I now have many grackles coming to my country property here in central Ontario, Canada. Where they nest and keep me poor filling the bird feeder every day.
I built a large platform type feeder attached to the kitchen window with a two way mirror. This feeder is large enough (4ft X 3ft) that I still get all of my usual birds from small chick a Dees to blue jays, Cardinals, Doves, etc . all eating together with the Grackles and everyone is happy. ALL animals need our love.
Thanks for the video.
Ron S
I love great tailed grackles so much! They are so exotic sounding, I love waking up to them in here southern Utah🌵
I agree! Their sounds are really complex and fun to listen to!
My common Grackle show up around march until July/August. And they LOVE walnuts.
The backing track vocalists to any/all US parks, zoos, or empty lots
We don't have these birds in Europe 😮. They would'nt be popular among our farmers 🙈 who already grumble against our crow families .
Grackles are the Hell’s Angels of the bird world, and I dread mid March when they come roaring back to town.
When they show up in the hundreds of thousands, they generate a headache inducing racket (and endless amounts of droppings under their roosts).
In my area (Kansas) they are especially obnoxious pests that congregate around parking lots to pick bugs from vehicles (and steal unguarded groceries in the back of pickup trucks).
They are entertaining and beautiful birds, but not when they’re in such high numbers.
Nuisance can be entertainment
That’s most animals…including humans if you’re a misanthrope 😂
@@BrinIoca I can recognize the nuisance of too many humans without going full-misanthrope.
I lived in KS for a while and the grackles were a problem there. They outnumbered other species and would get together in large numbers to squawk loudly from the trees outside the house. I don’t see many where I live now and figure fewer is a good thing when it comes to grackles.
@@robertjones8598 they tend to roost in the trees in the parking lot around Walmart, and it’s absolute mayhem. There are hundreds of thousands of them, and the racket (and the poop, and the smell) is unbelievable. Everything under the trees is coated with guano, and vehicles quickly get whitewashed with grackle droppings. They yell all night long and fly around constantly, so it’s headache inducing for everyone that works there.
THey're a nice friendly face in every single parking lot. I enjoy feeding them watermelon and lil healthy treats when I think to have some on me. I like trying to imitate some of their sounds. The quick clicking one tends to be "Gather/food" I think. Either way. Love them.
Houston grackles sound so unique by comparison.. wonder if it's the car noises
Maybe. Not a grackle tale, but there is a mockingbird in my yard that imitates a car alarm. Really confused me for minute when I heard a car alarm going off in a tree.
The grackles do a pretty good job of combing my lawn for pests and sometimes cleaning out my gutters looking for bugs and sprouted seeds. They are OK in my book. I just make sure I feed safflower in my feeders since that is not preferred by them but a lot of the other songbirds like it.
My Mom raised a common Grackle that had fallen or was taken out of the nest and left on the road. They were even featured on “ BoomTown” critter corner ‘s Rex Trailers TV Show …sponsored by the MSPCA to help educate. They are wonderful creatures and I fondly remember our little Blackie when I see them …
Yes love having around
I saw one eat a duckling in Disney World once.
I love grackles. I see them all the time in Arizona and today, I saw two makes fighting for the first time and they were brawling on the ground
Nobody likes grackles. They eat trash, fly in huge flocks & poop everywhere. But I love them. They have unique sounds & they’re super awesome.
I love grackles and am not popular with my neighbors ! 😵💫😂
For 3 years, I've been trying to "make friends" with crows in the area. So far, I've attracted squirrels and, just recently, a grackle. At least I have the right color and species, now!! 😂
My Grackles steal my dogs kibble, and they eat baby sparrow hatchlings. They bring them to my dogs water bowl and leave half the carcass in it, yuck...
I like Grackles. I find them to be very smart and curious birds. Every winter I look forward to hearing the noisy flocks of Common Grackles begin to return here in CT, marking spring is right around the corner.
Among food you forgot ‘discarded cigarettes’. The Home Depot trash birds on Barbara Jordan are particularly fond of spent lung darts.
Tons of them on the Georgia coast. Always a bunch near the lighthouse and pier at St. Simons Island.
Uh, yeah, Grackles are Great! Unless and until you find yourself in the midst of millions of them at Dusk, perched side by side and end to end of every branch, power line, and fence, all screaming and carrying on like Freshman at Spring Break and your mind keeps wandering to the classic Hitchcock movie "The Birds". Then they are still great, just annoyingly, freakishly so.
I’d never heard of them! I’m in New Zealand 🇳🇿 beautiful birds!
Pro! They are marvelous, I love the sound of 4000 grackles in a grocery store parking lot!
💜 Love our Grackle friends!!
✨Thank You for
your video! 💕
We get Boat Tailed Grackles from late May until about August here in south central Wisconsin, in my sleepy town. Over the years I have befriended a few and look forward to their visit every summer. It took years of trial and error with me just trying to copy their calls. I think they find it funny and we spend a lot of time going back and forth while I try to sound as cool as them!
We have a family group for neighbors in the summer, they're here nesting now. I put out a small dish of soaked kibble every morning and they know it's for them. Quite interesting animals! They don't figure things out easily on their own, but they can watch other birds (eg: jays) and copy solutions brilliantly.
everyone in Texas is always like "them crows" when talking about grackles and as much as I hate to sound like a know it all...I kindly educate them of the differences lol
Sadly, I've not seen many grackles in the past 3 years or so. They used to be very plentiful, though they rarely dominated the feeders. Instead they'd scavenge what's dropped on the ground from other birds. The blue jays have also disappeared almost completely the last 3 years as well.
I saw and heard one small family of them just last month. I was so surprised, but then found a dead one in my front yard. That was pretty upsetting.
I live on the Mid-Atlantic coast and read that the abrupt population decline was possibly from them eating pesticide-tainted cicadas, though I live in an area where only the yearly cicadas emerge and not the cyclical ones due to the sandy soil. So I'm not sure what's going on. Not the nicest sounding birds, but they're still pretty to look at. I miss them and I hope they rebound soon and stay healthy.
Grackles sure are beautiful; but be careful when they’re raising their hatchlings. I’ve been attacked by a couple of them when I unknowingly got too close to a tree in which they had a nest.
I have a bird feeder & a Grackle chased away a Hawk, protecting the other birds. It was awesome. I'd never seen a smaller bird chase a Hawk.😂 The Hawk hid in a tree so it worked.
I remember them raiding the whole foods in Austin. Flying in and out of the store and snatching food from customers.
They're here in California but they're sparse and can typically be found with the red shoulder and other black birds.
I enjoy their tenacity.
I first encountered these birds in the Conroe-Houston, TX area a couple years ago in a mall parking lot. They reminded me of a cross between a crow and a chicken at the time as they flew and then scurried under cars, making all sorts of noises I hadn't heard before. I'm guessing I saw great-tailed ones because while I don't remember how big the tails were, I remember them being pretty distinctive. Eastern Tennessee has the common grackles, but there doesn't seem to be as many as elsewhere. We also have a few black vultures, which I also first saw en masse in Texas.
I've been calling them "walmart wallows" (walmart swallows didnt have the same silly ring to it as walmart wallows) for years now because I had no idea what they were lol. Love these guys, I keep a bag of expired unsalted trail mix in my car to toss to them when I see them. They are such characters!
Common grackles have been nesting in the dense top of my arborvitae for many years. I witnessed a squabble for nesting rites early this Spring. Though the nest is fully concealed, I know the eggs have hatched when I see adults removing white fecal sacs from the nest. There should be fledglings in a couple of weeks.
They are a pest for me. I have four citrus trees, and the grackles will destroy every single fruit if I don't cover them with insect netting. I built a trap for them one year and caught a bunch. They are absolutely delicious, on par with doves. They are extremely smart though. They wised up to the trap after only one year.
They started harassing the crawfish farmers here as well. They land on the sacks of crawfish and kill the crawfish inside.
I’m a fan! They are pretty and interesting too, I watch them from my office in Dacono, CO 💙💜🖤
I once saw a great tailed grackle that was leucistic, with the whole bird being a pale brown, almost white. It was a male. It didn't seem to have any difficulty interacting with the others, due to it's appearance.
Some where in the early 2000s , i was astounded to hear a incredible racket.
A huge flock of Grackles. In the trees in our front.
They hung out for a hour or so. And flew. The only strange thing this was in Southern Oregon. i was sure by their tails.i was hoping they would stay around. But that one sighting was it.
Changos with their yellow eyes, and screeching, fighting for food with the pigeons. Very clever and skilled..
I wish I could see the beauty of these birds for what it is. We just see them as invaders where I’m from. You see them more often than the state bird, and that’s because grackles have driven them away as urbanization extends beyond city limits
i just found this channel. as a fellow bird freak (affectionate) i love you
Thanks for the video and I really do like watching these beautiful birds they are intelligent and I like when they chase the squirrels to keep them away from their nesting area
Love grackles! Feel like not enough people take the chance to appreciate their beauty. People seem to view them as a pest similar to pigeons, at least where I’m from.
I have been under appreciative of grackles, thinking of them mainly as pests.
I need to pay more attention to them, watch their antics and listen for more variety in their song. Most of this info was new to me. Nice video.
Live in Texas and they hang out in droves in grocery store parking lots looking for trash, the more industrial sight, the more of these birds. Overbred and taking over other birds nests.
Today i learned the proper name for what ive been calling the 'dorito bird' due to them eating anything in proximity of a dumpster
They look and sound funny according to my grandaughter.
Great-tailed are one of the most common birds here in Phoenix. They love ficus nitida trees and get really rowdy in them at twilight. The males have such a funny call that builds up to a single high-pitched note, really entertaining to watch.
I’m in Phoenix too, but don’t get to see them often around my neighborhood. 😢 (central Phoenix) But sometimes a small group of them will hang out in the tree next door and I love going out to watch them. When I lived in Dallas, there were THOUSANDS of them. 😃
It should be noted that they copy other birds' songs, as well as noises they hear in their environment.
I was summoned
Detailed, objective, and informative; but straight to the point, and no fluff. Love how the information is structured... my ADD brain likey.
❤❤ we always called those (Cat birds).💕👽
GRACKLES ARE THE GREATEST! 🥰🥳🤩👍💜👍💚👍💙👏❤️👏🤎👏🖤
I feel like you missed out on some of the boat-tailed grackles iconic calls. When they're displaying to females or to other males they make some crazy sounds. Here in South Florida, boat-tailed grackles are everywhere and they're so much fun to watch due to their confident attitude in comparison to the shyer jays and doves. I love watching them strut along the parking stones like it's a runway. Great video
They are enigmatic creatures that deserve respect but not trust.
I didn't know much about these incredible birds until I went on a trip to Florida. I was instantly captivated by their cheekiness and guile. They are also just so gorgeous.