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Common Grackle

Status Common in summer, uncommon in winter. Breeds. The species was considered rare in several nineteenth-century accounts. However, Hickman (1896) listed it as breeding and "very common" about Pictou, and it had become common in Kings County by about 1910 (R.W. Tufts). Today, in areas where they have not wintered, they generally appear in the second half of March (average 26 March, earliest 6 March) and are widespread by April. In summer the population is largely restricted to urban and agricultural areas, but after the nesting season large flocks forage widely in the countryside. Migrants become conspicuous on the coasts and islands of the southwestern counties between mid-September and mid-November, but some large flocks remain into winter. For example, over 1,000 were recorded on the Christmas Bird Count at Kingston, Kings County, on 22 December 1974, and 50-100 or more have been observed on other Christmas Counts and also somewhat later in winter in farm districts and towns from Cumberland and Halifax counties to Yarmouth County. In addition, individuals and small flocks have wintered at feeders throughout the province.

Description Length: 28-33 cm. Adult male: Iridescent sheen on head, neck and upper breast varies from green or blue to purple; bronze sheen on back, rest of plumage black with less iridescence, generally bronze in tone; eye straw-colour. Adult female: Smaller and duller, iridescence showing slightly on head, neck and breast.

Breeding Nest: Made of coarse grass and other rough vegetable matter, often cemented with mud and lined with fine grass; usually built in tall spruce trees, sometimes singly but often in colonies of various sizes. This occasional tendency toward colonial nesting may be induced by a scarcity of the most desirable nesting sites, such as the hedges of tall, thick-growing spruces that are often isolated throughout farming districts. It is unusual to see grackles nesting in districts even slightly remote from habitation.

Eggs: 4-7, usually 5-6; greenish blue, marked rather heavily with blotches and spots of dark brown or black. Laying begins during the second half of April. A nest containing seven fresh eggs was collected at Wolfville on 10 May 1928 and another containing five which were slightly incubated was taken by Basil Colbran at Windsor on 26 May 1927. A most unusual nest at Gaspereau, Kings County, on 13 June 1965 was in a hole originally made by a flicker in a decayed apple tree limb. It contained young about ready to fledge, and both parents protested my intrusion.

Range Breeds from east central British Columbia, southwestern Mackenzie Valley, northern Manitoba, southern Quebec, and Nova Scotia, south to the southern United States. Winters mainly in the middle and southern United States; casually further north.

Remarks Primarily a ground feeder, the grackle has greatly benefitted from man's development of land for agricultural purposes. Ornamental spruce hedgerows and groves are also used as nesting sites. Its food is largely insects during summer, but later it relies partially upon waste grain and wild fruits. Its habit of devouring the eggs and young of songbirds in spring is a black mark against it. Like the crow, it probably has fewer friends than enemies among mankind.

Inexperienced observers sometimes mistake this bird for a starling. When seen in the field, the most obvious difference is in the tails, the tail of the grackle being long, that of the starling being particularly short; the grackle is considerably larger, its manner of flight is slower and more deliberate and at close range the marked difference in plumages becomes apparent.