Their sky-pointing protective display is a fine spring sight. The sky pointers are back. Have you seen male common grackles walking or standing with their bills pointed up to the sky? This threat ...

The grackle is not a popular bird, I learned from reaction to last week’s column, in which I wrote appreciatively of the species. One reader suggested that the only way to appreciate grackles is with ...

Some of the more common birds we see here in Texas are the grackles. You can hardly walk through a supermarket parking lot without seeing one of these brown or black birds peering out at you from ...

Are your feeders dominated by grackles? Ours are too. Common grackles are large birds, 11-13 inches long, with long beaks. Their coloring is black with a beautiful iridescent sheen of blue, purple and ...

In 1904, "A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York" by Ralph Hoffmann (himself a member of the AOU) includes entries for the following: loon, American eider, American merganser, ...

If there were to be a contest to throw one bird species off the planet, the common grackle would likely be a nominee. The grackle has a reputation as an avian thug. "The bully of the bird world," it ...

SOUTH NEWFANE Last week, I was a music critic, reviewing the musical abilities of our locally common blackbirds: red-winged blackbird, brown-headed cowbird, and common grackle. My review was not ...

One of the great spectacles of spring migration is the arrival of the blackbirds. The common grackle (Quiscalus quiscala) is the largest of the blackbirds that visit our area. I think, however, that ...