Grackles Out for Dinner

Grackles Out for Dinner

A couple of grackles (or is that a grackle couple?) came for dinner the other night. They usually come in groups and stay on the ground, eating the seeds tossed down by the smaller birds at the feeders. But maybe tonight was special.

When the whole group lands, they can inundate the area, taking turns splashing in the birdbath, covering the lawn like a feathery blanket, flitting back and forth from ground to tree. I like to observe their activities. But as much as I observe them, they are quite the observers themselves. When something, whether a person or the neighborhood stray cat or a visiting grandchild comes too near, they will take off and wait until the supposed danger has passed, then return to whatever they were doing. If someone, mostly me, becomes too annoying, the birds will tell me off, squawking loudly from the trees as if they are yelling at me to go away.

They are often confused with crows but there are differences in size and feathers: crows are larger but grackles have the most beautiful iridescent feathers. Crows are corvids while grackles are icterids, relatives but from different sides of the blackbird family.

Whatever their differences, however, they are both smart birds. They have exceptional memories for faces and places. They can make and use tools. They can actually think like humans, according to tests being done in determining their brain capacity.

I remember how the old term “bird brain” was used to criticize someone who didn’t understand something but perhaps it wasn’t an epithet at all. The more we learn about these birds, the more impressive they seem. And that may go for most assumptions that we make. When we look at others in a negative way, are we really only showing our own lack of understanding? Grackles or crows, us or others, life in any form is an intriguing mystery.

The Massachusetts Audubon Society helps us distinguish grackles from crows:

http://blogs.massaudubon.org/yourgreatoutdoors/raven-crow-or-grackle/ 

John Marzluff's findings about crow smarts:

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/march-april-2016/meet-bird-brainiacs-american-crow

 

The Beauty of the Unexpected

The Beauty of the Unexpected

I love to find joyful surprises during the day. This morning, one of them came in the form of a grackle on the feeders. The sun was shining on its feathers, bringing out the iridescence that is not always visible. It was as beautiful as it was unexpected.

Usually, grackles are not my favorite birds. They can be problematic around the normal backyard birds. They come in large flocks that scare off the smaller birds and they decimate the seeds in the feeders. I often shoo them off, watching them flutter into the trees where they wait for me to forget about them and then they return to continue feeding. And when they appear in vast numbers along their migration paths, they can pose health problems, damage crops, and create quite a mess.

In an ordinary backyard, however, there are ways to minimize their presence. Choosing feeders that discourage them is one way. A feeder with a cylinder wrapped inside a cage pretty much keeps them out. But it doesn’t mean that they won’t hang around for a while, munching on seeds thrown out by the other birds. They are also very observant, so if you don’t mind waving at them through the window several times they may eventually take off. And they do migrate so sooner or later they’ll be gone, leaving the feeders to the regulars.

Even though I often chase them away, I do appreciate these big black, yet colorful birds. They are native to North America, have a yearly presence, and shake me out of the winter doldrums with their beauty. They also remind me not to make judgments based solely on appearance, whether about birds or situations or people, because you never know when the unexpected can help you to see things differently and sometimes with joy.

If the grackles are getting piggy, try these techniques:

http://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/getting-started/coping-with-grackles/ 

Bird Seed Experiment

Bird Seed Experiment

Last week I wrote about Starlings. One of the links suggested discouraging them from the feeders by using safflower seed instead of sunflower seed. It said that the other birds would love the safflower seeds but all the blackbirds – starlings, grackles, and redwing blackbirds – would leave it alone.

As the blackbirds, grackles in particular, were eating most of the seed, I decided an experiment was in order. So I bought some safflower seed. These seeds looked different, a stark white instead of black. We filled two of the feeders with it and left the sunflower seeds in the other feeders until they ran out. Each time we passed the kitchen window we peeked out to see who was munching on what.

At first it seemed that the information was correct; the grackles munched on the sunflower seeds and left the safflower seeds alone. The cardinals shifted back and forth between feeders, as did the finches. Then the sunflower seed ran out. The blackbirds were not happy. They hopped over to taste the new seed and left, disgusted. The other birds were testing it out, too. They seemed to prefer the original meal but most came back. It didn’t seem to bother the tufted titmouse, or the chickadee. We even saw a woodpecker munching away. The flocks of blackbirds that sweep in and decimate the feeders were not present. A lone grackle would show up and soon leave. The experiment was working! And then…

There it was. A grackle was eating the new seed! I thought it would leave once it realized this was not the delicious sunflower seed it was used to finding. It didn’t. The bird took another seed, and another. It didn’t seem upset at all. Now comes the question – Was this an aberration or an adaptation? Would this lone bird alert its flock that the change on the menu was okay? Were we participating in an evolutionary shift?

It’s too early to tell where this will end. All I know is if the blackbirds will eat both kinds of seeds, the sunflower seeds cost less. To be continued…