Great-tailed Grackle
Quiscalus mexicanus
Male grackles perform a 'sky-pointing' display, stretching their necks upward to signal dominance to rivals without physical fighting.
- Scientific name
- Quiscalus mexicanus
- Taxonomy
- Animalia › Chordata › Aves › Passeriformes › Icteridae › Quiscalus
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- increasing
- Biome
- urban
- Habitat
- Urban centers, agricultural fields, wetlands, and open grasslands.
- Diet
- Omnivorous: insects, small vertebrates like lizards, seeds, fruit, and scavenged human food.
- Range
- North America, Central America, South America
- Size
- 38-46 cm length, 200-265 g weight (males are significantly larger than females)
- Lifespan
- 7-13 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Pesticide exposure, urban hazards such as glass collisions, and climate change affecting nesting success.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless but highly intelligent and bold. Avoid feeding them human scraps as it impacts their health. Maintain a respectful distance during nesting season to avoid defensive dive-bombing behavior.
The great-tailed grackle or Mexican grackle ( Quiscalus mexicanus ) is a medium-sized, highly social passerine bird native to North and South America. A member of the family Icteridae, it is one of 10 extant species of grackle and is closely related to the boat-tailed grackle and the extinct slender-billed grackle. In the southern and southwestern United States, the grackle is sometimes referred to simply as a "blackbird" or (erroneously) a "crow" due to its glossy black plumage;
Photo: Anthony Batista, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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