# Great-tailed Grackle

*Quiscalus mexicanus*

Male grackles perform a 'sky-pointing' display, stretching their necks upward to signal dominance to rivals without physical fighting.

- **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.

## About

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;

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/94553b28-9074-44e3-8d10-b8dee7b69234
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/9607
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiscalus mexicanus
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/216292658/medium.jpg (Anthony Batista, CC-BY, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.