- 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. Rare but regular breeder north along coast to Massachusetts. Only one accepted inland record at Braddock Bay Bird Observatory in New York.
Taxonomy
Polytypic. Consists of two subspecies.
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.
Habitat
Marshes along the coast; in Florida, also on farmlands.
Behaviour
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.
Vocalisation
Harsh jeeb-jeeb-jeeb-jeeb, unlike the whistles and clucks of the Great-tailed Grackle.
