BigRedBirder (talk | contribs) |
Nomdeploom (talk | contribs) (add photo of female, increase size of photo of male) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
;Quiscalus major | ;Quiscalus major | ||
| − | [[Image:Boat-tailed_Grackle.jpg|thumb| | + | [[Image:Boat-tailed_Grackle.jpg|thumb|550px|right|Male. Photo by David Roach]] |
| + | [[Image:grackle_boat_tailed_f.jpg|thumb|350px|right|Female. Photo by Nomdeploom.<br>Location: Cape Canaveral, [[Florida]], USA]] | ||
==Identification== | ==Identification== | ||
Males 16-17" (41-43 cm)<br/> | Males 16-17" (41-43 cm)<br/> | ||
Revision as of 17:16, 20 April 2008
- Quiscalus major
Identification
Males 16-17" (41-43 cm)
Females 12-13" (30-33 cm)
Tail very long and keel-shaped
Male
- Black
- Iridescent blue on back and breast
- Yellow or brown eyes
Female
- Smaller
- Brown with paler breast
Similar species
Common Grackle smaller; female lacks paler breast.
Very similar to Great-tailed Grackle
- Averages shorter-tailed
- Rounder headed
- Relatively long legs
- Long slender bill
- Distinctive voice
- Eye color differs
- White eye on Atlantic coast
- Brown eye on Gulf coast
Distribution
Resident along coasts from New Jersey south and west to Louisiana; also inland in peninsular Florida.
Habitat
Marshes along the coast; in Florida, also on farmlands.
Behavior
Food
Mostly insects and plant matter. Lesser quantities of aquatic invertebrates and reptiles or amphibians
Nesting
3 or 4 pale blue eggs, spotted and scrawled with brown and purple, in a bulky cup of grass, mud, and decayed vegetation placed from 2 to 10' (60 cm to 3 m) up in marsh grass or bushes.
Voice:
Harsh jeeb-jeeb-jeeb-jeeb, unlike the whistles and clucks of the Great-tailed Grackle.
Discussion:
This species and its close relative the Great-tailed Grackle were thought to be a single species until it was found that both nest in southwestern Louisiana without interbreeding.
