- Quiscalus major
Description
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; averages shorter-tailed and rounder headed, with relatively long legs; long, slender bill; and distinctive voice. Eye color differs where range overlaps: white eye on the atlantic, brown eye on the gulf coast.
Habitat:
Marshes along the coast; in Florida, also on farmlands.
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.
Range:
Resident along coasts from New Jersey south and west to Louisiana; also inland in peninsular Florida.
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.
