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Common grackle
Quiscalus quiscula
35.9269, -79.0386
Field Notes
Description:
These birds are taller and have longer tails than typical blackbirds; their bills are also longer and more tapered and their feathers are glossy and iridescent. Females are somewhat duller than males in color and juveniles are brownish. Grackles practice "anting," rubbing insects on their feathers to apply liquids such as formic acid secreted by the insects.
During breeding season, males tip their heads back and fluff up their feathers to display and keep other males away. This same behavior is used as a defensive posture to attempt to intimidate predators. They tend to nest in colonies, laying about 6-7 eggs.
Noisy birds, grackles gather in groups and peck for food on the ground and also eat at feeders, where they often displace smaller birds. They eat a variety of foods, including insects, minnows, frogs, eggs, berries, seeds, grain, suet and even small birds and mice.
Habitat:
Common grackles live in North America east of the Rocky Mountains in open and semi-open areas.
Notes:
This unfortunate bird had at least four ticks on its head. We’ve been having a mild winter in North Carolina, which apparently is going to result in ticks appearing even earlier than usual. People tend to blame deer for spreading ticks (and Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Fever), but small mammals like rabbits and birds are also carriers. (I had a robin at the feeder with a tick on its face, too, and the wildlife sanctuary where I volunteer has had an electric fence for over 30 years, no deer on the grounds and it is rife with ticks.) I hate ticks!
See also: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/BOW/comgra/
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