"Strutting His Stuff"

The boat-tailed grackle might be one of the more underappreciated members of the avian world. For one, it's among, the most common birds around. Second is its looks, seemingly, uninterestingly all black. Third is its willingness to eat almost anything, including garbage.

 

And then there is its blasted unmelodious call. It's just noise to the human ear.

 

But Quiscalus major shouldn't be so easily dimissed. Yeah, there are a lot of them, but that's because as a species they're doing something right.

 

The reality is that this bird is anything but plain. In the right light, iridescent blues and greens become apparent, making the boat-tailed beautiful.

 

And it actually has a fairly complex social structure. Boat-taileds form colonies, where males fight to be the king of the roost, so to speak, and the mating rights that go with it. While the top bird gets his share of the action, according to Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, a lot goes on behind his back. Only about a quarter of the young of a given flock carry the DNA of the dominant male.

 

Boat-tailed's range extends along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts from Texas to New York and Connecticut. But only in Florida do they venture inland.

 

Boat-tailed grackles forage near and in water for insects, snails, crayfish, frogs, fish and shrimp. They also eat seeds, scraps of food — we've seen them steal french fries from an occupied picnic table — and will take the eggs and young of other birds. They can be pesty in agricultural areas — farmers have been known to take pot shots at them even though they are protected under the Migratory Species Act.

 

Boat-tailed populations are generally stable, but they do face a threat from declining habitat. They are members of Icteridae, the blackbird and oriole family.

 

I found this male "Strutting His Stuff" along the shore of Lake Kissimmee at the Joe Overstreet Landing in Osceola County, Florida.

Done