To Kill a Grackle (6 Viewers)

[Chris D]

My Mockingbirds mimic Pacific Chorus Frogs and the odd laser sound some neighbor kid's loud video game makes. Makes me pine for a Lyrebird. As for bumping off plentiful species at one's feeders ------ I've kinda' taken lately to dissuading other neighbors from feeding our 4 'Goldfinch' types. This after repeatedly seeing big die-offs of Lessers and Pine Siskins. A massive rotting mound of thistle hulls mixed with the odd botuli and other beasties under the feeders no doubt a contributing factor. Counted 13 little ones once. Some still in the throes.

 

[cleininger2]

I know this is an old thread, but I'll respond anyway. When I first bought my house I didn't discriminate against any birds. I considered feeding the birds but I didn't do it. I thought the pretty irridescent purple birds were nice. Then they started kicking all of the other baby birds out of their nests and killing them. I recently rescued a robin that was learning to fly and was attacked. So far it's alive, but this morning I found one of it's siblings with it's throat torn out and it's trachea completely exposed, dead. Even though I don't feed the birds, these grackles leave dead babies all over my yard every summer and I can't take it anymore. I have no idea why they attack them; these are fledglings on the ground (and sometimes hatchlings in nests.) Today I am declaring war on these horrific birds. I do not dig up worms and spend hours comforting injured birds and trying to protect them only to wake up in the morning and find my yard littered with corpses. They were stealing my fish out of my pond, too, so I had to re-do it so that they couldn't get to the fish. They seem to kill for sport in my yard.

 

[MarkGelbart]

I collect vintage cookbooks. Many praise the culinary properties of squirrel. The rodents eat nuts and acorns and this diet allegedly makes their flesh taste good. I've always wanted to try it.

There's nothing wrong with killing an animal for food as long as it is not an endangered or rare species.

People who kill animals for the hell of it though are sick.

I frown on people who play God and kill animals simply because they like other animals they compete with better.

 

[Dave111]

We feed all the wildlife in our area (correction I do because my wife scares away the owls, chicken hawks and foxes but I don't). We have cracked corn trays for deer, squirrels, some of the birds and sometimes racoons. It has been mentioned to protect feeders from grackles but that is impossible for instance with a feeder designed for blue jays and wood peckers. Our place has developed a perfect harmony with the wildlife except too many squirrels at 20+ (why I do not chase the predators away). The Grackles on the other hand have been migrating through in flocks of hundreds. They descend and chase everything away and eat all the food. We chase them away but they just fly around the neighborhood or across the stream and come back when we go back in. You really need to experience this first hand to feel and see how frustrating it is. We do not try to kill them but have shot at their bodies with a low powered bb gun. This does not kill them or permanently injure them. It is just a sting to warn them. Now if they catch a glimpse of us through the window, they instantly leave and they do not come to the feeders closest to the house. We emptied the corn and feeders away from the house and chased the few braves scouts away coming to the feeders closer to the house. After a few days of this, the flock or "plague" of grackles have left. There are probably 4 or 5 grackles staying which I do not have a problem with as they mostly eat corn and seed off the ground. We also have a few crows that stick around which my wife loves because they will chase the chicken hawks away. We do have a small population of house sparrows but they seem to be behaving so far. The blue birds may be wise to them because we have a lot of feeding blue birds but none that are nesting here yet.

 

[Loud Green Man]

The RSPB shoot predators in the interest of one or more preferred species. While I’m sure they don’t take pleasure from it this nonetheless demonstrates a certain ‘value’ is placed on one critter over the other.

LGM

 

[Dave111]

The RSPB shoot predators in the interest of one or more preferred species. While I’m sure they don’t take pleasure from it this nonetheless demonstrates a certain ‘value’ is placed on one critter over the other.

LGM

l approach wildlife assistance from more of a balance and harmony perspective. I really do not place any more "value" in one form of wildlife over another just as our federal government has approached protection of wildlife. That is why I allow a small population of grackles to remain. There are sometimes non native and invasive species of animals that disrupt the natural harmony of local wildlife. Human intervention is not always a bad thing which is why we still have blue birds saved from extinction. Human intervention did cause a negative issue in the local river with introducing non native blue catfish. That is why the government is now intervening and killing off a lot of the local blue catfish now. Funny how humans get bent out of shape about 1 dead invasive grackle being made an example of but will shoot a human home invader and make an example of them with the media. It is not about value, it is about stopping overwhelming populations of negative behavior. That is why as humans we have prisons. Even though every human life is valuable, the negative behavior with negative consequences has to be stopped.

 

[KC Foggin]

I'm just going to jump in here and wish you a warm welcome to you from those of us on BirdForum Dave

l approach wildlife assistance from more of a balance and harmony perspective. I really do not place any more "value" in one form of wildlife over another just as our federal government has approached protection of wildlife. That is why I allow a small population of grackles to remain. There are sometimes non native and invasive species of animals that disrupt the natural harmony of local wildlife. Human intervention is not always a bad thing which is why we still have blue birds saved from extinction. Human intervention did cause a negative issue in the local river with introducing non native blue catfish. That is why the government is now intervening and killing off a lot of the local blue catfish now. Funny how humans get bent out of shape about 1 dead invasive grackle being made an example of but will shoot a human home invader and make an example of them with the media. It is not about value, it is about stopping overwhelming populations of negative behavior. That is why as humans we have prisons. Even though every human life is valuable, the negative behavior with negative consequences has to be stopped.

 

[Dave111]

I'm just going to jump in here and wish you a warm welcome to you from those of us on BirdForum Dave

Hey, thanks for the welcome! Sorry for the necro post but this looks like a good thread for reference. Grackles are the only issue I run into with being a fellow bird enthusiast. I googled if it was legal to kill grackles and this popped up. To my surprise in reading through the thread, it appears that indeed it is if your dealing with an overwhelming plague of them and report a kill. I prefer the non lethal approach. This makes sense considering the damage I imagine they could do to a crop. Also, with the populations of them I see, extinction appears far from an issue. If they evolved to behave more like the crows in my area, they could coexist with humans better. The crows hang out in family units and were very shy to warming up to our wildlife refuge. Grackles just need to stop behaving like jailbirds (yes that was a pun lol), bandits or gangstas and even if they do, in smaller flocks.

Edit: upon further checking, state laws need to be checked in reference to killing grackles and in the states that it is legal, it conflicts with the federal migratory act

 

[walkingintheair]

I'm pretty new to the forum, and somewhat of a new birder. I've always loved birds but didn't become really interested in them until now if that makes sense. Cornell's birdsoftheworld website lists the Common grackle is listed as near threatened. Do you agree with them listing it as near threatened?