Common Grackle

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Common Grackle

(Blackbird, Purple Grackle)

Order: Passeriformes
Family: Fringillidae
Genus: Quiscalus
Species: quiscula

La. passer sparrow, small bird
La. forma form, kind, species
La. fringilla a small bird
Castilian quisquilla dispute

About twelve inches long. Black all over with purple, blue and green iridescent tints.

A staring black pupil is centered in a bright yellow iris. Long tail which it uses to steer with in flight.

Louis Agassiz Fuertes

Abundant throughout North America east of a general line from New Mexico to northern British Columbia. Birds located in the northern range migrate.

USGS Purple Grackle Map

Builds nests of twigs, grass, hay, sometimes cemented with mud lined with fine grass between six and sixty feet high on branches preferably in coniferous trees, although not picky and sometimes in tree hollows and abandoned cavities, often near or over water. Sometimes they nest in numbers in the same tree for safety and sometimes even nest in a small opening in the lower parts of an Osprey's nest of sticks.

Lays three to six light greenish white speckled (however the color varies greatly) eggs which hatch after about two weeks incubation and young are ready to leave the nest in about another three weeks.

In the breeding season, small bunches are often seen in fields and on city lawns scratching for grubs worms, bugs and seeds comically walking their funky head bobbing walk. Were it not for some of their other deeds they might be considered beneficial.

Uncanny thieves, they pillage song bird nests and your picnic lunch if left unattended. They gather in enormous flocks in the autumn before migrating south and ravage corn, sunflower and grain crops leaving more unharvestable on the ground than they consume. The crackley wheezy blackbird voice sounds like a squeaky barn door hinge and a flock of grackles sound like a thousand wheel barrows.

The best thing about the Grackle Nestbox is that you will probably find something besides a Grackle in it. It is the same nestbox as for Saw-whet Owl, Pygmy Owl, Lewis Woodpecker, and Flicker.

You may also find kestrels, flycatchers and various owls and woodpeckers using this nest box. It has a 7" by 7" floor, 16" inside ceiling, 2 1/2" diameter entrance hole located 14" above the floor and ventilation openings.

Pygmy Owl Nestbox Plans