The Grackles are back. I look forward to this every year, I’m very fond of grackles. They are astonishingly beautiful birds, with a metallic rainbow hidden in that black. They can look wonderfully fierce and raptorish, but they are endearingly clumsy, and there’s that fabulous puff ‘n’ whistle business. Grackles are always shy at first, as they tend to be high on the enemy list here in farm country. The last couple of years, there’s been an increase in leucism in grackles. There’s one leucistic grackle in particular, I call Pye, and I hope he is back again this year. (The last shot is Pye, from last year). Click for full size.
Yeah, grackles are wonderful. They showed up around here (Illinois-Wisconsin border) about a month ago along with the red-winged blackbirds. I think I saw a cowbird with them last week, but can’t be sure.
The grackles are also great because they are often kind enough to stand still and pose for the camera, and they look different from every different angle.
Kengi:
Haven’t seen any red-wing blackbirds yet, but they don’t usually show up at our place, they like being by water. Tons of them out at Sheep Creek Dam and Lake Tschida. I’ll have to get out there this summer. Cowbirds haven’t shown here yet, they don’t generally show until late Spring, early summer. I’m always conflicted about them, because of their breeding habits.
Those are fab shots! Yes, they always do look different. That first shot, the grackle is leucistic. It seems to be on the rise throughout populations.
Wow. The iridescent feathers around the head are really cool.
They are gorgeous birds. I’ve always said they are the perfect model for a steampunk clockwork bird.
I’m in the middle of the Chain of Lakes with water (and marshes and wetlands) in every direction, so we get a lot of red-winged blackbirds. We even get ducks in the front yard. In the video there’s a grackle eating out of the deer feed bucket.
Great shots and extra bonus for the one with semi albinism!
The last shot that sows the white band on the tail is a good one for confirming the species.
That head and neck plumage is exactly the coloring I want for my hair!
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Cicely @ 7:
If I could still dye my hair (allergic now), I’d go for the Grackle™ in a second.
Vidal Sassoon has coloring that steps widely in the right direction, but it still stops woefully short of the True Grackley Gloriousness of my imaginings.
:(
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Someone just needs to start the trend. Take a good photo, where you can see the deep purple blending into black, the blues and into the lighter teals, go to a good colorist, and say “I want this. Exactly.” A good colorist would love the challenge, I’d think.
But a good colorist would be expensive.
I will simply have to make do with do’s I can make.
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Hitchcock would love our grackle situation in Austin. They party all night there and in supermarket parking lots for some reason. It’s very entertaining.
Brony, Party all night is very grackle-ish. You should see Grackle summer here, it’s a hell of a thing.