Common grackle

The bird of this week is the common grackle, common by name but certainly not by nature.  These birds really stand out because, although they are jet black in dull light, their feathers are iridescent in bright light making them look blue, green and bronze.  The vivid yellow eye helps, too.

The males are slightly more flashy in their colourings than the females.  They are quite large birds, about thirty centimetres long, but they are also quite shy.  They stalk our back yard in groups taking long strides looking for food in the grass.

Occasionally one will come up on the deck to take some seed or a nut that's dropped there.  For a while there was even one that would hang off our bird feeder, despite being far too big to use it effectively.  I think its strategy was to shake seed out of the feeder on to the ground below where it could eat at its leisure.  The cardinals do something similar.

Just recently we noticed a whole new aspect to grackle life.  They've been breeding and their young 'uns are out of the nest and almost as big as their parents.  But mum and dad haven't got the kids off their hands yet, instead they've been out showing them the ropes.  Males and females share the feeding responsibility, according to my references.  All week we have been watching adults with one or more dull-coloured offspring following them around.  Mrs Walles snapped these ones together last weekend.

Sometimes the little ones will find something on their own, but if the adult finds something the kids will chase after it, mouths wide open and squeaking like a baby bird to try and get their share.  It's quite hilarious to watch and hear because the "little" ones are not very little but the way they behave you'd think they'd just been hatched.

I don't see any outside right now.  It is Fathers Day in the US today, so maybe the adult grackles are taking it easy while their offspring bring them breakfast in nest. Then again, maybe it's just the neighbour's lawnmower scaring them away.  A grackle can dream, though...