Announcing their presence with those wonderful squeaky sounds the Grackles are back in town. Isn’t it amazing that when photographed, in just the right light, a bird that looks jet black to your eyes is actually a multi-colored work of art. And eyes as cute as buttons…or are they buttons?
Thanks for showing the myriad colours and highlights on a grackle. I just saw the bird and heard the name for the first time last week – I don’t think we have them in England.
HI and thanks for the feedback. They are fun birds with great colors and make some unique calls and noises. Hope you get to see one someday.
If I am not mistaken, the male grackle is black with various shade of blue and violet, while the female bears brown feathers. Great shot.
Hi Alix, I will have to take a closer look to see if I can distingusih color variations in the Grackles around here.
That’s what it is, my friend. I have them in my backyard year long.
Not doubting at all just need to take a closer look myself as I have not made that distinction on my own. Hop your week is going well.
They have some interesting chirps and songs. I was experimenting with recording audio on a grackle last weekend. I haven’t mastered eliminating background noise yet.
They are very beautiful birds when the sunlight strikes them.
Hi Chris, we hav toyed with the idea of doing sound recording for some time now but have never gotten around to it and learning to collect and edit another form of media in addition to photos is a daunting proposition right now.
We have recorded some good nature sounds using our phones but they have been few and far between and in very quiet places.
It sure would be nice to have that place without background noise wouldn’t it.
Wonderful shot with the gloss showing so perfectly.
Thanks and I agree those glossy feather are sure something. Hope you are having a great day.
Grackles are such beautiful birds, but it doesn’t take long before they take over the backyard feeder! They have been in Illinois for about six weeks. I loved them at first, but am ready to see them move on now:)
HI, yes they can take over a bird feeder and being bigger in their case seems to be an asset.
Reblogged this on Our beautiful life in this beautiful world and commented:
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Hi and Thanks for passing along the photo. Much appreciated.
Großartig
Thanks and wishing you a wonderful weekend.
Fabulous bird, well ‘shot’.
Thanks Paula.
They are a dazzling bird. Nothing ‘common’ about them!
Hi Eliza, and I agree that common modifier in bird names has to go…the magnificient Grackle from now on.
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I most admire the colors of the Grackle and your photo is stunning!
Thanks, yes it is amazing to see all the colors in these guys. The shiny blue,black is just a marvel.
Love grackles. The long tailed ones I saw in Austin, TX when I lived there years ago were fascinating.
HI and thanks. Sorry for the tardy response last week as a bit crazy. I was in Texas a few years ago and the grackles were a bit different than the ones we have and even more amazing in their variety of songs and behaviors so I understand you like of them. Hope you are having a good week.
Another bird I never saw before in my life, not even in documentaries on TV. Those colors are wonderful, and did you notice how well they are “composed”? Everything fits beautifully and that’s one of the things which amaze me most about nature: every tiny detail, from the biggest animal over processes happening in vulcanos to the tiniest jellyfish and its survival, fits perfectly in its purpose and is perfectly balanced in all its processes. Just humans interfere with this balance….
Yes, we are all perfectly designed to work in our chosen environment. Every detail in place. Our only problem right now is how rapidly we change our environment it seems.
Hmmm… I’m not really designed to work in my (not-really) chosen office environment. 😉
You meant to include humans in the “we” of “we are all perfectly designed…(…)”, yes? 😉
And you think, changing our environment (too) rapidly results in being totally exhausted and stressed all the time because of the constant need to adapt? I hope I got you right. 🙂
Well, to me it seems that things change so rapidly that the systems we disjoined to help us out seem to somehow enslave us in the end.
How true. An example: My laptop at work once was a means to facilitate work… sending e-mails, writing texts etc. Portable, small, neat.
Now: We are getting flooded with e-mails, create numerous useless presentations which no one ever will remember etc. And when my laptop is broken, the network connection fails or anything else connected to electricity goes wrong, I cannot work anymore. In the truest sense of word.
I think it’s vitally important in our “modern era” these days not to forget (or to learn again) how to live (survive!) without all the (alleged) facilities of the systems we created. But I think I already mentioned this once. 🙂
Suzan, I agree. It is a fine line we now walk with all our technology and as we create more and more faster and faster the system gets just a little less stable at times.
The sound of grackles takes me to amazing places.
Hi, it is a wonderful squeaky sound.
I think these birds are fantastic and yet often overlooked. As you have shown in your photo, their hidden colours can be spectacular!
incidentalnaturalist.com
Thanks David and I am with you on this one. The hidden colors and fun behavior of the grackle is quite a treat. Their larger size makes it appear act as bullies but sometimes you just got to get out of the way of the big guy.
Yes, quite magical when one takes time to see. Have a lovely week 😊
Thanks Ellie and wishing you a great week.
Yes, it is amazing, how different they can look in certain light. Your photo is really lovely, Mike, with the spectrum of different colors.
Thanks Jet.
The colours are stunning – a real surprise. I often think the common pigeon’s colours are wonderfully varied and vibrant in the right light, though at a glance, they are just the dull shade we associate with pigeon-coloured.
I adore grackles! Love the sounds they make and they look so fierce all the time!
Grackles are a conflicting relationship in backyard birding to enjoy. They’re indeed gorgeous and add to the musicality of the feeders, but boy do they run off the other small birds and hoover up the seed! Can’t beat the feather coloration though. Great shot!
That’s a great shot. At our airport there is an astonishing cacophony when they settle down to roost. Quite magical.