Great Tailed Grackle

Sometimes people call the grackles Crow Blackbirds.

The Great Tailed Grackle belongs to the New World, all being characteristic to America.

The Great Tailed grackle has a very long tail, pale eyes and a long beak. The males are a shimmering black in color and the females are brown and much smaller. Great Tailed Grackles have pale colored eyes and calls that are harsh and rough. Often these grackles congregate in groups. Both the male and female spend most of their time on the ground. Their feet are strong and large, and, when on the ground, they walk or run but never hop.

DISTRIBUTION Bird watchers find the grackle widely distributed throughout Texas and continues expansion west and north. In the western third of the state, the Great Tail inhabits human surroundings, especially in towns and cities.

The Great Tailed Grackle is a native of Eastern Texas too. Also they inhabit the country southward into Central America. Bird watchers discovered them living in environments of every nature, from arid plains and wet swamp to the thickest forests.

In the case of Great Tailed Grackles in the West, the primary factor is human because man has converted the arid prairie and grassland habitats to irrigated farmland. These areas allowed Great Tailed Grackles to spread rapidly up the major river systems jumping from river to river as they move northward.

The Great Tailed Grackle has rapidly expanded its range in the United States in the 20th Century. The breeding distribution as extending from the coasts of northwestern Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and northwestern Peru, north through Middle America to south and central California, southern Utah, northern New Mexico, southeastern Colorado, Kansas, southern Nebraska, southwestern Missouri, southwestern Arkansas, and southwestern Louisiana.

The Great Tail stays as a permanent resident in most of the southern half of Texas. In the northern portions, these grackles often migrate south when extreme winter conditions prevail.

The male Great Tailed grackle has completely black plumage with purple glimmering. The female Great Tailed grackle has tawny coloring around the eyes and chest and the rest of its plumage is dark brown.

The male Great Tailed Grackle is like the Common Grackle but is bigger with a longer tail. Great Tailed and Boat Tailed Grackles are similar but have mostly different environments.

The location of the nest is about half way up the larger trees and an open cup, canopy type nest. The birds place the large nest in a crotch of a tree, among several small branches at the end of a limb and sometimes at quite a height from the ground. In parts of Texas Great-Tails nest in live oaks but other large trees will satisfy their nesting needs. The Great Tailed Grackle also nests in shrubs and occasionally select holes in large trees. They build the nest from grasses and small twigs, with a lining of fine grasses. Also the nest builders often use man made materials like toilet paper and plastic. Nest building starts in the middle to the late days of March. In some instances nesting may continue into late July or early August.

Normally the male grackle marks off its territories in late February or early March.

BREEDING HABITAT: Nearly all of these grackles nest around human habitations. This may range from city parks and streets to farms. Great Tails avoid heavily wooded areas for nesting or foraging. They also avoid areas that don't have large trees. Grackle colonies usually form in clumps of trees next to or near pastures or lawns.

After mating the female lays between three and four eggs. Normally the birds have one brood per year but sometimes according to the weather occasionally they will have two broods. For about two weeks the bird sits on the nest and then the young birds hatch. About three weeks later the birds begin to fly from the nest.

Some colonies of grackles peak in the middle of April while other colonies had its peak in early May.

The diet of the Great Tailed Grackle consists of plants, insects, small reptiles or amphibians marine creatures and some eggs.

STATUS: All is well with the Great Tailed Grackle. Populations continue to grow and the species continues to expand its range. Indeed, this has become a pest species in many parts of Texas.